The word genocide was coined by the Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, when he sought to describe the Nazi policies of systematic extermination, which included the destruction of European Jews.
The term is formed by combining the prefix geno- (from the Greek, race or tribe) with the suffix -cide (from the Latin, to kill).
The crime of genocide was thus defined:
“Genocide means any conduct committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such; killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 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.”
According to the UN, genocide can be identified as:
“Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”
In light of these definitions, can we say that the Zelensky regime, through its well-known forced mobilizations and the continuous persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is in fact applying a true genocide on the Ukrainian population? Or are there first-class genocides and second-class genocides?
Who am I, and who are you, to define what is or is not “genocide” and when the term can or cannot be applied? Have social networks perhaps given you the right to play God? To me it seems that much of humanity is losing sight of the true value of human life. Still, we can try to analyze this matter with a cool head.
Let’s look at some examples.
On August 20, 2025, Russian hackers allegedly breached the Ukrainian General Staff’s database, revealing catastrophic losses within the Ukrainian army. According to the compromised digital register, if the data are correct, Ukraine has lost 1,721,000 soldiers killed or missing in three years of conflict. There are names, circumstances, places of death or disappearance, personal details, family contacts, and photographs. The cyberattack was carried out by groups including Killnet, Palach pro, User sec, and Beregini.
If Ukraine were to continue for another three years rounding up men and even the disabled (there is factual evidence of men with serious syndromes and disabilities being forcibly conscripted in Ukraine and sent to the trenches), by a quick calculation it would lose around 5,163,000 men killed or missing. If the war were to continue another six years at this pace, the toll would reach 10,326,000. If it were to last another ten years, the figure would be 17,210,000 killed or missing.
The assessment is yours to make.
This is the human cost of the grotesque “just peace” promoted by Western leaders, who proudly wave statistics on the cost of arms supplies and financial resources pumped into Zelensky’s clique, yet carefully avoid disclosing the number of those who are dying even now as a result of this warmongering policy.
Why do these gentlemen not take responsibility for these figures? If Western leaders are so sure that this is the right price to pay for the so-called “just peace,” why don’t they communicate these numbers? Even assuming they do not consider them credible, a reflection and a subsequent summit between Western and Ukrainian leaders should naturally follow to assess the situation from this perspective, in my opinion. Or are these democracies so busy supplying instruments of death that they have no time to devote to the consequences of such actions?
The term genocide also extends to the destruction of a “religious group,” and that is precisely what is happening today in Ukraine against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
For example, in May 2025 Tucker Carlson interviewed Vadim Novinsky, one of the richest men in Ukraine, an Armenian with Russian and Ukrainian citizenship, a three-term member of the Rada, elected with opposition parties to Zelensky. His position is opposed to Zelensky but not pro-Russian, although he was forced to leave the country because of an investigation by the Ukrainian secret services. Novinsky has always been a supporter of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and in the interview with Carlson he denounced the measures implemented by the Kiev regime.
I will quote only the first three minutes of Carlson’s interview with Novinsky, hoping you will look further into what he reported.
“Before the war, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had 12,000 parishes and 7 million faithful. Over the past 10 years, persecution has intensified, and even now it is leading to terrible consequences. Parliament has passed a law banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, archbishops are being persecuted, false criminal proceedings are being opened, parishioners are beaten. Some metropolitans are in prison, others under house arrest.
Another major example is Metropolitan Longin, who runs an orphanage in his church that houses more than 600 disabled children. A man of love, persecuted solely for being faithful to the Church. Every day churches and temples are stormed by soldiers armed with machine guns who expel priests, children, the elderly, and women — and this happens every single day in Ukraine.”
What I have listed is only the tip of the iceberg of what happens daily in Ukraine. I invite everyone to reflect beyond political alignments and to come as close as possible to what should be the value of human life, the value of traditions, culture, and religion that have always distinguished humankind regardless of the colors of the flag one belongs to.
I believe that what Kiev’s leadership since the Maidan coup has been doing against ethnic Russian civilians in the Donbass fits the definition of genocidal intent and action as defined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, and as set forth now by the UN. Their removal and destruction of Russian monuments or statues in Ukraine, their attempts to eradicate the Russian language and Russian history, these are things well known by now.
And then there is this matter of Kiev’s leadership persecuting the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This, too, fits the definition of genocidal intent.
I am a Bible believing Christian here in America, of Protestant Reformed theological persuasion. Although I have never met any Christian people outside of the United States, I identify with all believers in Jesus Christ with a heartfelt sense of connection to them. Union to Jesus Christ in the true spiritual sense of the word is a supernatural thing. It transcends physical distances and miles no matter how far and wide. There are considerable differences between Christians within Christendom at large when it comes to certain doctrinal particulars. Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox believers differ in connection with some interpretations of Biblical content and ecclesiastical practice. And yet where true spiritual union to Jesus Christ is involved, there is an actual unity present that brings us together.
Christian people in Ukraine and Russia are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I can love them even before I meet them personally in the flesh. Whatever may be our differences in some things of a theoretical or hermeneutical nature, yet we are united in spirit. And the day will come when we shall meet in glory forever with our Lord and God. We are presently finite beings with limitations at present that account for understanding some things differently. We see things through a glass darkly in certain respects. But in the end imperfections and limitations will be removed entirely and every one of us will see all things eye to eye, in perfect harmony. Meantime, even now, those of us who are supernaturally reborn of God’s Holy Spirit are one people in Christ.
Because of this, I take Kiev’s persecution of Ukrainian Orthodox people of Russian descent personally. What hurts or harms them hurts and harms me.
Moreover, Jesus Himself takes it personally when His people are persecuted, and when He settles things in due time, the persecutors will have a very bad day.