The Crimean Human Rights Group analysts have monitored the content of Russia media for 2022 and identified narratives used by the Russian propagandists to call to exterminate or persecute Ukrainians in Crimea and in the newly occupied territories of Ukraine.
The most common narratives promoted by the propagandists in their statements are as follows:
- “Ukrainians as nation do not exist since Ukrainians are ethnic Russians”;
- “Russia must seize Ukraine, fully or partially, to eliminate the Nationalists, Banderites, and Nazis”;
- “Ukrainians who do not support Russia must be persecuted, deported or exterminated”;
- “Exterminating Ukrainians is the response to their support of Ukraine’s armed resistance to Russia”;
- “Ukrainian civilians may be exterminated for achievement of military purposes because Ukraine itself forced Russia to war”;
- “Ukrainian authorities in the occupied territories must be persecuted or eliminated”.
The monitoring of the public and private Russia media showed that for the purpose of communicating and making acceptable the thought that Ukrainians may be exterminated, the Russian speakers applied such manipulations as blurring the line between civilians and combatants, dehumanizing, using the WWII terminology, and justifying aggression against the civilians by war objectives. For instance, the Russian propagandists denied the existence of the Ukrainian nation and used this to play with concepts.
Key narratives used to call to persecute the Ukrainians in the occupied territories of Ukraine are considered in more detail below.
“Ukrainians as nation do not exist since Ukrainians are ethnic Russians”
This narrative may be found in statements of speakers Sergey Veselovskiy and Sergey Mikheyev and is used to explain why Ukrainians must be exterminated.
For example, in his speech Sergey Veselovskiy calls Ukrainians the Russians who betrayed their people and became slaves of the West. This is the reason why, as he states, Ukraine was step-by-step transforming into Anti-Russia, and Russians as wrong Ukrainians might be looted, raped, and exterminated. The speaker, for instance, dehumanizes Ukrainians describing them as janissaries and mankurt slaves of the West who rebelled against their own Russian people. And Veselovskiy concludes that to achieve peace and reunify “the single people” some Ukrainians who sided with the West must be exterminated, while the others must be put down by returning the Russian identity.
Sergey Mikheyev in his speech claims that there could be no genocide of Ukrainians because Russians and Ukrainians are not distinct ethnically, they differ just politically. Therefore, he blames not Western countries but ideology of the Ukrainian Nazi State and its supporters who may be exterminated for the purpose of calm peaceful life, for separation of the “single people”.
Such statements give the Russian audience moral sanction to support actions for exterminating Ukrainians because the Ukrainian population is described in the Russian media space as terrorists and existential threat for Russians that they must protect themselves against.
“Ukrainians who do not support Russia must be persecuted, deported or exterminated”
This narrative is mainly used in the statements referring to the territories occupied by Russia and civilians who live there and resist the occupation. The propagandists’ speeches call to persecute, deport or exterminate such people. For instance, Sergey Mardan in his show on Solovyov LIVE Channel calls to “send to the basement” (i.e. to place in jail and torture) pro-Ukrainian “marginals” (he calls them also “Sientsovs” using the name of one of the former political prisoners unlawfully arrested in the occupied Crimea) or “to ask” them to leave the Russia controlled territory. He sums up his speech quoting Maxim Gorky: “If the enemy does not surrender, he is eliminated”.
For instance, the Russian propagandists use this narrative as ultimatum for the residents living in the hostilities area or not far from it. The civilian men, for example, are called to inform Russians about the Ukrainian military positions to save their lives and their families.
This narrative is also used in the statements about the cities that Russia wants to return or seize in the future. For example, commenting the liberation of Kherson Region by the Ukrainian troops, Sergey Mardan pointed out in his Telegram channel post that disaffected population had not been filtered in Kherson. The speaker called to use violence against the civilians when the Russian troops returned to this city if the military administration considered this necessary. In his other statement, the propagandist called to send Odesa housing maintenance staff who participated in dismounting the monument to Catherine II to Gulag.
This narrative is often used in combination with blurring the lines between civilians and combatants. For example, Mikhail Deliagin, Deputy Chairman of Committee for Economic Policy, “A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth”, expressed the opinion that Russian Army had to intensify the elimination of everything that resisted, to save more lives of Ukrainian military and civilians.
In this case, it is unclear which specific group of people the speaker calls to exterminate because the Russian occupation is resisted not only by the military but also by the civilians, who, for instance, rally against the occupation authorities. In addition, to emphasize this thesis the speakers resort to dehumanizing the pro-Ukrainian population, calling it a disease that will spread if not exterminated.
“Exterminating Ukrainians is the response to their support of Ukraine’s armed resistance to Russia”
In statements with this narrative, the Russian propagandists call to persecute or exterminate pro-Ukrainian people in the occupied territories who say publicly that they are waiting for the Ukrainian army. For instance, Aleksandr Yur’yev, Chairman of Simferopol Community Council, called in the air of KRYM24 TV Channel to deport the people waiting for Ukraine and supporting its armed resistance to Russia, to the Siberia “to clean snow”.
“Ukrainian authorities in the occupied territories must be persecuted or eliminated”
It should be noted that the Russian propagandists also call specifically to exterminate or persecute the Ukrainian authorities’ representatives who remained in the occupied territories. For instance, in the air of 60 MINUTES show at RUSSIA I, Igor Korotchenko called to arrest “Bandera mayors” and send them to labor camps for 20 years for refusal to collaborate with the occupiers.
Public calls to persecute Ukrainians for their national or political identity are very dangerous because they give the Russian military the sanction to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide in the territories uncontrolled by Ukraine.
The immensity of such statements may be evidence of the Russia’s targeted policy to persecute Ukrainians. This is also confirmed by hundreds of cases of persecution, torturing, deportation and murders of the civilians in Crimea and the newly occupied territories of Ukraine documented only by the Crimean Human Rights Group for the last 10 years. The most vulnerable groups of population are activists, journalists, public or political figures, Ukrainian ex-military.
It should be noted, inter alia, that due to such narratives the Russian society is becoming more tolerant to extermination of Ukrainians. This is achieved by consistent dehumanization and “labelling” of Ukrainians living in the occupation as “traitors” and “terrorists”.
Upon the monitoring results, 10 speakers who incited the enmity and called to persecute or exterminate pro-Ukrainian residents in the territories occupied by Russia, were identified:
- Aleksey Zhuravlyov, first Deputy Chairman of Defence Committee of State Duma;
- Sergey Kliuchenkov, a presenter at Solovyov.LIVE TV Channel
- Igor Korotchenko, a Russian journalist and war expert
- Yevgeniy Mikhaylov, a political analyst, international conflict expert
- Sergey Mikheyev, a political analyst, a presenter at Solovyov.LIVE TV Channel
- Mikhail Deliagin, Deputy Chairman of Committee for Economic Policy, “A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth”
- Sergey Veselovskiy, a presenter at KRYM24 TV Channel
- Aleksandr Yur’yev, Chairman of Simferopol Community Council
- Aleksandr Losiev, a financial analyst, member of Council for International and Defence Policy Presidium
- Viktor Litovkin, a writer, a military observer.
The content was selected by the Crimean Human Rights Group with WORD OF WAR analytical service developed by CHANGING TOGETHER CA. TV shows of such Russian media as PERVYI KANAL, ROSSIA 1, Solovyov LIVE, aired in 2022, were reviewed during the monitoring. The monitoring list also included selected video channels of some Russian and Crimean media and speakers with many subscribers in YouTube and Rutube social networks and Telegram messenger.
The methodology for selecting and assessing the content was developed by Yulia Krylova-Hrek, PhD (Psychology), IRES researcher (Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University (Sweden), Ass. Prof. (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy National University), given the results of the previous Crimean Human Rights Group study: “Hate Speech in Online Media Publicizing Events in Crimea”.
The analysis author – Anastasiya Chubukova, a CHRG documentator.
For examples of statements that according to the Crimean Human Rights Group analysts, feature hate speech together with calls for genocide of Ukrainians, see Annex 1.
