Hunted to near extinction. A phrase that can describe American Buffalo in the 19th century, as well as the everyday risk for people in Ukraine's Kherson region today.
Media, think tanks, and human rights organizations use a term coined “human safari.†The Human Rights Watch calls it a war crime in its report: “Hunted from Above.†As dehumanizing as these terms are, it is a rather accurate description of a systemic Russian campaign deliberately targeting civilians near the frontline with First-Person View (FPV) drones.
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Genocide is defined in international law as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.†The Genocide Convention consists of two elements: the intent to commit a genocide and physical acts: “killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.â€
Genocides committed by states are planned well in advance. For Ukrainians, the signs were there all along. The illegal Russian invasion started in 2014 in parallel with anti-Ukraine hate speech on state TV. Russian state-level hate speech against Ukraine, and by extension, Ukrainians as a national group, has been financed and widely disseminated to incite the public. According to the UN itself, hate speech and genocide are linked.
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G7 Summit to Address ‘Five-Point' Peace Plan as Trump and Zelensky Join European Leaders
As the G7 summit convenes in Evian-les-Bains, France, a potential diplomatic resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war will take center stage. According to German government sources, US President Donald Trump will review a “five-point†peace framework formulated by the E3 (Britain, France, Germany) and Ukraine during recent talks in London. With Ukraine reportedly operating from a position of strength, European leaders are advocating for a quadripartite negotiation format: Ukraine, Russia, the US, and Europe.
“Dehumanization†is one of the 10 stages of genocide that conclude in “extermination†and “denial.†Russia has been publicly dehumanizing Ukrainians since 2014, culminating in despicable acts of genocide such as the “human safari.â€
Independent experts have concluded by May 2022, that Russia had violated the Genocide Convention through “direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and a pattern of atrocities from which an inference of intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group in part can be drawn,†and warned that Ukrainians faced a serious risk of genocide.
UN findings conclude that Russia is systematically committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, but stop short of analyzing the totality of the mounting evidence pursuant to the Genocide Convention.
In a finding published in March 2026, the UN concluded that the forcible transfer of children by Russia is a “crime against humanity,†contradicting its own legal definition of genocide. That is because The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) defines the forcible transfer of population as a crime against humanity, while clearly distinguishing the forcible transfer of children as an act of genocide. The Genocide Convention also defines transfer of children as an act of genocide.
This UN finding mentions the Russian motive for abducting children and concludes it was planned prior to the full-scale invasion without examining it further. It also appears to isolate these transfers from the overall context in which the Ukrainian national identity is erased and the Russian one forced on children, including in schools under occupation.
The Rome Statute has a provision specific for children under the genocide article separately from war crimes and crimes against humanity because it targets identity formation and continuation.
Earlier in March 2023, the ICC had issued arrest warrants for the Russian president and the Russian commissioner for children's rights for the unlawful transfer of unaccompanied children, according to Rome Statute.
This shows a pattern in which various UN agencies avoid invoking Rome Statute provisions created specifically for children, using instead the broader term “population.†This is mind-boggling, because the Russian commissioner for children's rights is facing arrest, but seemingly not for the crime she committed. She oversaw the transfer of unaccompanied children and changing their identities, not the forced displacement of population.
This points to a potential power struggle and political pressure within the highest levels of the UN to artificially reduce the gravity of genocide to “war crimes†and “crimes against humanity,†avoiding mentioning and examining “intent,†isolating the crimes, and switching provisions specific to children.
Population transfer (forced displacement), including families with children is a crime perpetrated by Russia in addition to transferring unaccompanied children. Genocide is widely regarded as the gravest international crime, despite carrying the same maximum penalty as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Impunity makes Russian violations grow more barbaric with each passing year. Systemic Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone attacks deliberately targeting civilians along the entire frontline, with significant concentration in the Kherson region are some of Russia's most sadistic crimes.
Russian FPV drone operators are terrorizing Ukrainians on the streets, farms, and their own backyards, and upload their “human safari†videos online to mock civilian victims without fear of accountability. The UN ignores how it came to pass that the armed forces of one of its own Security Council permanent members are “hunting†human beings with impunity.
To independent observers, this state-sanctioned campaign aligns with acts of genocide aiming to destroy life conditions and must be analyzed in totality with all Russia's international violations: all the war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
There are no special expectations in Ukraine from any state to directly intervene to stop these atrocities as per the “Responsibility to Protect†principle. At the very least, UN personnel are expected to act, without political pressure, exchange of interests, or prejudice, and to deliver a just recognition, as they have for Palestinians, Yazidis, Bosnians, and Rwandans.
Not only are Ukrainians being sidelined as a group, but children, who are the most vulnerable victims of a state with much influence in the UN, are being denied recognition.
In September 2023, the chairman of the UN Independent International Commission in Ukraine said: “there is still no consensus†on whether a genocide is being committed, revealing that there is, in fact, such a discussion. Which then logically raises the next question: if such a discussion exists, where is the warning?
The UN has failed to raise the risk of genocide despite all the indicators, and despite warnings from independent experts and the Council of Europe.
The stain that even Israel could not escape, is only being postponed for Russia. It is not unlikely that the Russian influence inside the UN is attempting to obstruct the course of historical justice.
Hidden power dynamics inside the UN cannot indefinitely block examination of intent. It is too late to prevent a genocide, but it will never be too late to hold Russia and those who obstruct justice accountable.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author's and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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