A Kremlin paper justifies erasing the Ukrainian identity, as Russia is accused of war crimes

An editorial in a prominent Kremlin media outlet appears to provide justification for the war with its call to erase the Ukrainian identity — language that geopolitical experts say is especially alarming after the discovery of dozens of dead civilians in a Kyiv suburb.

Written by Timofei Sergeitsev in RIA Novosti, the rhetoric in the editorial — entitled "What Russia should do in Ukraine" — is inflammatory, even by the usual Russian state media standards.

It claims the word "Ukraine" itself is synonymous with Nazism and cannot be allowed to exist.    

"Denazification is inevitably also De-Ukrainianization,"  Sergeitsev writes, stating that the idea of Ukrainian culture and identity is fake.

A prominent scholar whose career has been spent studying historical genocide said he felt sickened by reading the article — but he was also convinced that the Kremlin is using it to justify atrocities in Ukraine to the Russian people and the military.

"It's just a clear, pretty laid-out template for what is going to happen," said Eugene Finkel, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. "This article crossed the line between talking and thinking about the invasion as some kind of collection of war crimes into something much more co-ordinated."

When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the military invasion into neighbouring Ukraine on Feb. 24, he justified the war by characterizing it as a way to "demilitarize" and "denazify" the country — utterly unfounded propaganda. 

Yet Sergeitsev's editorial seizes on those words and takes them much further, writing that Ukraine's elite "must be liquidated as re-education is impossible" and since a "significant part of the masses … are passive Nazis and accomplices," Russia's punishment of the Ukrainian people is justified.

A former Canadian ambassador to Ukraine said those words caused him significant concern, noting the editorial read like an instruction manual for Russian soldiers.

"It's essentially a rhetorical 'licence to kill,'" said Roman Waschuk, who continues to work closely with the Zelensky government in Ukraine.

"It says if someone strikes you as terribly Ukrainian, you can 'just off them' for the good of the cause."

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The editorial was published on April 3, the same day as the bodies of at least dozens of civilians were discovered in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha after the retreat of Russian forces.     

Many of the bodies displayed signs of torture or had their hands bound when they were killed. Eyewitnesses told media outlets that the civilians had been executed by Russian soldiers during almost a month of occupation.