Ukraine intends to organize a genocide against Russian speakers in Kharkiv and Donbas, the Russian media writes, drawing on a statement made by an adviser to president Volodymyr Zelensky, which it deliberately misinterprets in order to build this false narrative.
NEWS: “Podolyak, adviser to the President’s Office, wants to stage an all-out genocide in the Kharkiv oblast, as well as in the people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, until the word “Russians” will be completely forgotten.
Kyiv has stopped hiding information about what Russia had always reminded the West and what the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had always laughed away. Podolyak, an adviser to the Zelensky administration, has admitted live on television that he wants an all-out genocide in the Kharkiv oblast, but also in the oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk, which will make the word “Russians” forgotten for good.
I want the word “Russians” to be forgotten in the oblasts of Kharkiv, Podolyak said, quoted by Strana.ua. I want the word “Russians” to be forgotten in the oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Furthermore, the Zelensky administration doesn’t conceal the fact that it wants to kill the leadership of the people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk. It’s worth mentioning that Ukrainian authorities are thus getting rid of all people that the Kyiv regime finds undesirable. On August 31, 2018, Alexander Zakharchenko was the first to be killed in a bomb explosion.”
NARRATIVE: Zelensky’s adviser announces the organization of a genocide against Russian speakers in Kharkiv and Donbas.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: In his statement broadcast on the ICTV national television station, Mikhailo Podolyak, adviser to the president of Ukraine, didn’t refer to the launch of an operation aimed at “cleansing” the oblasts of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk of Russian speakers. He never uttered the word “genocide”.
Podolyak was asked to comment on the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian front, and said he wants to see Ukraine free of the Russian occupiers. Zelensky’s adviser said Ukraine must “show no mercy to Russian collaborators and soldiers”. He said that Ukraine wants to liberate the oblasts of Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson of the Russian invaders, adding that the word “Russians” must be forgotten in these oblasts.
The targets of Podolyak’s speech are Russian forces and their collaborators: at no point did the Ukrainian official refer to the civilian population, irrespective of being Russian or Ukrainian speakers. Moreover, a part of the population in the oblasts Moscow occupied after the February 24 invasion has fled the Russian invaders, seeking refuge in the West, in Ukraine or beyond. The people who didn’t manage or didn’t want to leave the country never put up with the occupation: there are numerous reports of civilian resistance in the area of Kherson. Although Moscow is trying to legitimize the invasion arguing there is a Russian-speaking population that doesn’t want to be part of Ukraine, the mobilization of Ukrainians shows that Russians are seen as the enemy by the majority of the population that wants to stay in Ukraine. The brutality of Russian forces, which is transparent in the shelling of countless civilian objectives, summary executions, rapes and plunders – shows that the Russians are in fact treating the civilian population as enemies.
The people who stayed behind in the Russian-occupied regions are looked upon as a hostile population, and Kyiv wants to liberate them.
As regards “showing no mercy” to Russian forces and their collaborators, Kyiv has repeatedly insisted it abides by the Geneva Convention in the cases of Russian soldiers and observes national legislation in the case of collaborators, who at any rate don’t risk a death sentence since the capital punishment was abolished in Ukraine.
The narrative concerning a “genocide” against the Russian-speaking population is not new, and Veridica has debunked a number of its versions over the years. In March, the Russian media wrote that the UN supports the genocide targeting Russian speakers in Ukraine, in November 2021 news agencies in Moscow wrote that Ukraine continues its genocide in Donbas using Turkish drones, whereas in September 2021 the Russian national television announced that the Ukrainian army might rid Donbas and Crimea of Russian speakers.
