Responsibility for genocide
Serhii Taruta, People's Deputy of Ukraine, Head of Donetsk Regional State Administration (2014)
As to negotiations in Istanbul - I will not comment on or criticize their course, because we all understand that these are only the first steps out of a thousand. However, the ultimate goal of any negotiation and it is important to speak loud and clear, must be Russia's responsibility for the genocide of the Ukrainian people.
I am sure that this is not only my position, but also the position of all those who are now defending the Ukrainian land, all those who have lost relatives and friends who have lost their homes. The position of the totally destroyed Mariupol, Kharkiv, Irpen, Bucha, Gostomel, the mutilated Sumy, Chernihiv, Trostyanets, occupied Kherson, the position of Nikolaev, in which yesterday the orcs buried people under the rubble of the bombed administration. The position of millions of people whose lives and families were destroyed by Russian troops, whose children were killed and maimed by the occupiers.
Reparations and contributions have to be discussed at these negotiations.
The Russians staged genocide (see the definition of this term in international law - this is what the Russians are doing) on the territory of an independent state in the heart of Europe. At a time when Mariupol, which is a symbol of invincibility, is holding a heroic defense, while orcs are drawing their most powerful troops to the city, when the Armed Forces are fighting for every inch of Ukrainian land, shedding blood, we must demand responsibility for genocide.
The enemy must respond. And this responsibility must fall not only on the current generation of Russians, zombies of Putin's propaganda, but also on future generations. They will either bear collective responsibility, like the Germans did after World War II, or in a few years we will have a Second Chechen War.
Russia's historical responsibility for the genocide of the Ukrainian people must be irreversible. Even now, even before the ceasefire, they must understand that the world knows who is the aggressor in this war and who is the victim of the bloody war. And no Russian propaganda should have a chance to spread the idea that "only Putin is to blame."
This is the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Those who dropped bombs on hospitals, maternity hospitals, the theater where children and pregnant women hid, those who raped, shot, tortured, and looted will not be able to simply leave Ukraine and live their lives. War criminals must be punished for war crimes. The invading people must bear historical responsibility. Russia must pay for the genocide.
Without this, there will never be not only peace, there will be no World as we have known it until now.