Moscow Blasts US Genocide Label From Country That’s Committed “Well-Known” War Crimes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quick to back Joe Biden’s Tuesday remarks which labeled what Putin is doing inside Ukraine as “genocide”. Biden had followed his use of the label for the first time, which marks a serious escalation in the United States’ rhetoric by explaining, “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is trying to wipe out the idea of being Ukrainian.”

Zelensky then said on Twitter: “Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil,” and made clear he agrees with the definition: “We are grateful for U.S. assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities.” 

True words of a true leader @POTUS. Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 12, 2022

The Kremlin has responded, on Wednesday calling the genocide label “unacceptable” and a distortion of the conflict, which the Kremlin has previously described as a battle against NATO expansion imminently threatening Russia’s legitimate security interests.

“We consider this kind of effort to distort the situation unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded, according to Reuters. He emphasized the hypocrisy of a US military machine which has committed “well-known crimes” in the recent past.

“This is hardly acceptable from a president of the United States, a country that has committed well-known crimes in recent times,” Peskov described.

Biden’s prior genocide designation was controversial, given it has a very strict and narrow application according to the UN convention on the term:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

President Biden labels Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a “genocide” for the first time:

“Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank — none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away.” pic.twitter.com/RlOpN3OpMi

— The Recount (@therecount) April 12, 2022

It appears Biden was prompted in particular by events at Bucha, outside Kiev, to use the genocide label. Ukraine has charged Russian forces with slaughtering at least 300 civilians, while Putin and other Kremlin officials have called it a “staged provocation”.

But again, genocide has very definitive parameters and typically takes significant evidence to establish, as some US defense officials have recently pointed out…

A Defense Intelligence Agency official tells Newsweek that Russia is guilty of war crimes – but that it isn’t committing genocide. https://t.co/LJgnqSsXTa pic.twitter.com/y5mxsT7y1F

— Clint Ehrlich (@ClintEhrlich) April 13, 2022

Meanwhile, and quite dangerous and worrisome for the prospect of a WW3 scenario, hawks in Congress are calling for more muscular US military intervention in the conflict – such as the imposition of a no fly zone – and they are seizing on the idea of “genocide” whether proven or not.