The article examines the criminal actions of the Russian federation during the full-scale aggression in Ukraine from the point of view of their compliance with existing international crimes, in particular genocide, with the aim of proper criminal law qualification. An analysis of the objective side of genocide as an international crime provided for by the Convention “On the Prevention and Punishment of the International Crime of Genocide” and the Statute of the International Criminal Court is provided.

The illegal behavior of the Russian federation is analyzed in the context of the socalled denazification, as the main goal of the invasion of Ukraine. Based on the norms of the Convention and the established practice of international criminal tribunals, the article shows the difference between such objects of criminal offenses as a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group and a nation. It is concluded that the actions of the Russian federation are not aimed at the destruction of any of the groups of the Convention, but actually at the destruction of the Ukrainian nation, its culture, language, history, and statehood. In this context, the views of Raphael Lemkin, the founder of the concept of genocide as an international crime, are analyzed. The necessity of international legal qualification of the actions of the Russian federation as a new international crime is argued and its conditional name is proposed – natiocide.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Lemkin R, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (Columbia University Press 1944) (in English).

Newspaper articles

2. Akopov P, ‘Nastuplenie Rossii i novogo mira’ <https://web.archive.org/web/20220 226051154/https://ria.ru/20220226/rossiya-1775162336.html> (accessed: 15.07.2022) (in Russian). 3. Sergejcev T, ‘Kakaja Ukraina nam ne nuzhna’ (RIA Novosti, 10.04.2021) <https://ria.ru/ amp/20210410/ukraina-1727604795.html> (accessed: 15.07.2022) (in Russian).

Websites

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