OSCE: Russia’s Claim of ‘Genocide’ in Donbas is Reprehensible Falsehood

The monitors of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine have never reported anything remotely resembling Russia’s claim of “genocide” committed by the Ukrainian military in Donbas.

“Russia’s claim of genocide in Ukraine is a reprehensible falsehood.  The SMM has complete access to the government-controlled areas of Ukraine and HAS NEVER reported anything remotely resembling Russia’s claims,” the OSCE SMM posted on Twitter.

The OSCE representatives also urged the reading of the publicly available reports of the Mission.

The other day, at a press conference after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin once again stated that “genocide is taking place in Donbas.” The next day, 16 February, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation relayed the initiation of proceedings on “mass killings of civilians in Donbas.”

Russia has not yet provided any evidence or specific examples of such crimes, but Russian investigators say “hundreds of such facts” have already been recorded.

At the same time, U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price said the threat of new Russian aggression against Ukraine remained. This may happen in the coming days or weeks. To this end, the Kremlin not only continues to amass forces near Ukraine’s borders but also fabricates a series of false media reports that could be used as a pretext for invasion.

Price noted that all those fakes actually repeated what Russia had said about the “protection of Russian speakers” as a pretext for its actions in 2014.

Bohdan Marusyak