The UN International Commission of Inquiry into violations in Ukraine has not yet received enough evidence to conclude that genocide is occurring in Ukraine. As reported by the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, the chairman of the commission, Eric Möse, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv.
Möse clarified that the commission does not have sufficient evidence that meets the legal qualifications provided for by the Genocide Convention. “You remember that this is a question of intent, the intent of the criminals. There must be a “need” to destroy a certain group. And such destruction, according to the Convention, must be physical or biological. These are the strict conditions (for recognition of genocide) that are confirmed by judicial practice,” – he said.
The head of the commission noted that “there were certain statements in the Russian media that could possibly be relevant to the issue of incitement to genocide” and, in his opinion, “this issue should not be considered separately from other conclusions.”
“As you know, we have found a large number of war crimes. We have found that on at least two topics, namely torture and attacks (on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure) since October 2022. The question is whether they should be considered crimes against humanity… And we have determined that there are indications that this may be a crime against humanity. So I think it is useful to look at everything in context,” Möse added.
The head of the commission also said that it will continue to investigate violations in Ukraine.
Möse made a statement that the investigation into human rights violations in Ukraine did not find evidence of the Russian army committing genocide in the country in March of this year. At the same time, commenting on the UN report on Russian war crimes in Ukraine released on March 16, he emphasized that the commission “identified a wide range of war crimes by the Russian Federation.” In September 2022, Möse stated that “the Russian army is committing war crimes in Ukraine on a huge scale.” Among the war crimes documented by the commission by Russians against Ukrainians are executions, torture, sexual violence and crimes against children, large-scale shelling and bombing of populated areas.
In January 2023, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch released a report in which it noted that the Russian army in 2022 was involved in many violations of international humanitarian law on the territory of Ukraine.
