The Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Victims, Perpetrators, Justice, and the Question of Genocide by DianaDumitru and A. DirkMoses, eds. New York: Routledge, 2025. 271 pp. $190.00. ISBN 978‐1‐0328‐0323‐4
Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: Russia's war against Ukraine began in 2014, with Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.But the all-out invasion which was launched in February 2024, in the delusional belief by Putin that this would be another five-day war as in Georgia in 2008, has, more than two years later, become a seemingly endless war of attrition.There has been much scholarly attention, and this reviewer has contributed to another collection on the war, After the War?How the Ukraine War Challenges Political Theories, edited by Anton Leist and Rolf Zimmerman (2024).This new collection asks, as one of the editors, Diana Dumitru, put it in an interview in October 2024, "how useful is the concept of genocide when aiming to study this multifaceted violence in as encompassing a fashion as possible?"Dumitru, a professor of Romanian Studies in the United States, and her coeditor and countryman A. Dirk Moses, a professor of international relations, have gathered in this volume articles that were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Genocide Research in 2023, along with an additional chapter, chapter 13 in this volume.written by Kevin John Heller, "Options for Prosecuting Russian Aggression Against Ukraine: A Critical Analysis."Heller, a leading authority on International Criminal Justice, is quite clear that Russia's invasion of Ukraine qualifies as a criminal act of aggression, and investigates possibilities for prosecution for this crime.Crimes are indeed being prosecuted.The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for President Putin and his Children's Commissioner for the war crime of "unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."Later, the ICC issued arrest warrants for senior military officials for the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian objects and of causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects, as well as for crimes against humanity (inhumane acts).Additional arrest warrants have been issued for former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and General Valery Gerasimov, who is accused of missile attacks on civilian targets, including power plants.Heller does not address the question of prosecution for genocide, but, oddly, he does not seem to have been invited to.However, Yulia Ioffe notes in her chapter "Forcibly Transferring Ukrainian Children to the Russian Federation: a Genocide?" that international lawyers (in contrast to social scientists, "who focus on patterns of group destruction rather than strict legal criteria") remain divided on the extent to which Russia's actions in Ukraine constitute genocide under the Genocide Convention, which is substantively similar to the Rome Statute of the ICC (p.69 n. 9).She contends that "forcible transferring of Ukrainian children to Russia satisfies the prima facie elements of the crime of genocide" (p.69).But Ukraine, she points out, is pursuing different avenues to hold Russia accountable for violations of international law.With respect to the forcible transfer of children, Ukraine has prioritized the ICC.
Source: The Russian Review
DOI: 10.1111/russ.70000
Author: Bill Bowring
Institutions: University of London, Birkbeck, University of London
Language: English
Topic: War, Law, and Justice
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4407145013