11.04.2025, 09:40

Russia is waging an aggressive and genocidal war in Crimea, - Andriy Ivanets

The "Voice of Crimea"Education topic was raised, in particular, the state of the Ukrainian state language in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The importance of international court decisions on the Ukrainian language in the occupied Crimea and Ukraine's future strategy for its protection were discussed by Andriy Ivanets, a leading researcher at the National Holodomor Museum, and Andriy Shchekun, a columnist for the Voice of Crimea News Agency.

Linguocide: Why is it important to talk about the state of the Ukrainian language in the occupied Crimea?

"First of all, the oppression or destruction of any language, in our case the state Ukrainian language in Crimea for all citizens of Ukraine or the native language for the Ukrainian community in Crimea, is an illegal criminal act to supplant or destroy the Ukrainian language, a violation of international law and human rights. We can say that there are all the signs of a policy of linguocide pursued by the Russian occupation administration in Crimea," said Andriy Ivanets, further arguing more broadly about all the offenses committed by the occupation authorities.

In turn, Andriy Shchekun told about the recent article published on the website "Voice of Crimea" "Linguocide of the Ukrainian language in the occupied Crimea: a crime against identity", written by Andriy Ivanets. In particular, the article stated:

"Although the term "linguocide" has not yet been codified in international criminal law as a separate crime, its manifestations are covered by international conventions, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child."

Answering the question of what this concept of "linguocide" means in this case, if its meaning has not yet been defined in international law, Andriy Ivanets noted:

"... This is a legal international assessment of the situation in the occupied Crimea... When we talk about linguocide in Crimea, we are also talking about this phenomenon itself, and that it is not a separate policy of the Russian Federation, but a part of an aggressive and genocidal war. The goal of which is the destruction of the Ukrainian nation, the Ukrainian state... We have to document the facts of the destruction of the Ukrainian language."

The conversation also touched upon the question "Why is it the Ukrainian language that the occupiers are so afraid of?". Andriy Ivanets also answered the question of what to do when Russia is not going to comply with the decisions of international courts: what should Ukraine do?

The above article also contains a reasoned position on the issue of illegal occupation actions of the aggressor country.

"Moreover, the International Court of Justice in 2024 recognized that the Russian Federation violated ICERD by systematically depriving Ukrainians in Crimea of the right to education in their native language. This sets a legal precedent that allows us to qualify linguocide as a violation of international law and a crime against human rights. And if we take into account that Russia is waging not only an aggressive but also a genocidal war against Ukraine, we can consider linguistic genocide as an element of the genocide of the Ukrainian nation. At least, the author of the term "genocide," lawyer Raphael Lemkin, would support such an assessment," writes Andriy Ivanets target="_blank">said about the measures taken by the National Holodomor Museum to highlight the issue of the ethnocide of Ukrainians in Crimea during the Russian occupation.

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