The Ten Stages of the Russian Genocide in Ukraine
- Emily Mullin | Genocide Watch
- 1 day ago
- 13 min read
Source: EU Debates, News & Opinions
The Ten Stages of the Russian Genocide in Ukraine
By Emily Mullin
And the Genocide Watch Ukraine Team
Talks about a negotiated settlement of Russia’s war against Ukraine have dominated international headlines. As many hope that President Trump can talk Mr. Putin into ending the Russian invasion, we must never forget the incalculable suffering Russia has inflicted on the Ukrainian people. Russia has committed every war crime and crime against humanity, including relentless, indiscriminate attacks against civilians, systematic torture, mass rape, and the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
The war in Ukraine is a genocide. Russia has committed every act of genocide listed in the Genocide Convention. The Russian government has set out to intentionally destroy the Ukrainian nation.
In analyzing the phenomenon of genocide, Genocide Watch, a non-governmental organization founded by Gregory Stanton in 1999, uses “The Ten Stages of Genocide.” The model is not linear.[1] The processes of genocide don’t occur in a fixed order. Many occur simultaneously. The “Ten Stages of Genocide” is an early warning model which that breaks down the development of genocide into ten predictable processes: Classification, Symbolization, Discrimination, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Persecution, Extermination, and Denial. A powerful feature of the model is that it identifies tactics to slow or stop each of the genocidal processes.
Mass killing does not occur out of the blue. It is a product of years of discrimination and dehumanization by the perpetrator. As societies exhibit more and more genocidal processes, they get nearer to genocide. The model isn’t linear, but it is logical like a Matrioshka doll. Each stage has within it other stages. At each stage, societies at risk can take measures to stop or prevent genocide from developing.
All stages are present in Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine. For centuries, Russia has laid the groundwork for carrying out its current genocide against the Ukrainian nation. Beginning with the Russian Empire. Russia ruled Ukraine. Putin’s aggression is an attempt to reimpose Russia’s domination. Russia’s new imperialism began with its invasion of Crimea in 2014. In 2022, Russia’s full scale invasion began its merciless attempt to reimpose the systematic repression of Ukrainian identity under the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.
This analysis breaks down Russia’s genocide against Ukraine using the Ten Stage Model.
1. Classification: At this stage, social groups are classified into “us versus them.” Classification lays the groundwork for genocide by denying the legitimate citizenship of the targeted group.
Russia systematically classifies Ukrainians as inferior to Russians. The Kremlin denies Ukraine’s independent identity, sovereignty, and legitimacy, portraying Ukraine as an artificial or illegitimate nation and Ukrainians as “Little Russians”.
Putin even claims that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people.” Russian propaganda labels those who consider themselves Ukrainians, especially their leaders, as “Nazis” and “Western puppets” to depict them as a hostile enemy, like the Germans who invaded Russia and Ukraine in World War II.
2. Symbolization: The classifications are symbolized. Groups are distinguished by their language, dress, names, religion, and customs. In some cases, symbols are imposed on the targeted group (e.g. yellow stars). New identity cards may be issued in the language of the perpetrator, and the targeted group is required to carry them.
Symbolization in the war against Ukraine is present in Russia’s abuse of language, historical references, national emblems, and its imposition of forced documentation. Russian propaganda uses the term “Banderites” to associate Ukrainians with the anti-Soviet nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, equating them with traitorous extremism. In occupied territories, Ukrainian identity is forcibly altered – residents are pressured to obtain Russian passports, and those refusing face restrictions and discrimination.
Ukrainian national symbols, like the flag and trident, are demonized and banned. Ukrainian signage is removed, street names are replaced with Russian ones, and the Russian language is mandatory in public spaces.
3. Discrimination: Perpetrators use legal or cultural power to exclude groups from full civil rights (e.g. the German Nuremberg Laws, American segregation, or South African apartheid laws).
Russia’s war has seen systematic oppression and discrimination against Ukrainians. Particularly, Ukrainians in occupied territories face severe legal and political discrimination. The process of forced Russification includes the banning of the Ukrainian language, culture, and education, closing Ukrainian churches, and dismantling local governance systems.
Ukrainians are denied the right to personal identity and are pressured to accept Russian passports, with refusal leading to economic penalties, restrictions, and even arrest. Simply identifying oneself as Ukrainian in occupied areas carries significant risk of arrest, exclusion from commercial dealings, and suppression of Ukrainian Orthodox religious worship. Resistance to occupation is met with detention, torture, or forced disappearance.
Thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken to Russia, subjected to ideological reprogramming, and placed in Russian families through forced adoptions. Many Ukrainian Orthodox churches have been closed, with Russia promoting the Moscow-affiliated Russian Orthodox church, eliminating religious freedom.
The full extent of human rights abuses in occupied territories is not yet well documented, with many atrocities only coming to light when areas have been retaken by Ukrainian forces. Genocide Watch is working with a Ukrainian NGO to document Russian oppression in occupied territories.
4. Dehumanization: This stage is where the genocidal vortex pulls entire societies into its depths. The victim group is dehumanized and portrayed as subhuman. It is called the names of animals or likened to a disease: vermin or rats, cancer or plague (e.g. referring to Tutsis in Rwanda as “cockroaches”).
In preparation for its invasion of Ukraine, Russian propaganda spent years feeding its population dehumanizing rhetoric about Ukrainians. Putin and the Russian Army routinely deny the value of Ukrainian human life and dignity. They characterize Ukrainian men as criminals and Ukrainian women as prostitutes.
Dehumanizing language conditions Russian soldiers to believe that their murders, torture, rape, sadism and war crimes are justified.
Russian propaganda frequently refers to Ukrainians as “Nazis,” “Nazi filth,” “Nazi scum,” “Nazi tumors” “brain cancers,” “bestial,” “zombified,” “subordinate elements of a different and alien civilization,” “diseased or contaminated,” and the “epitome of evil.” Such language is designed to strip Ukrainians of their humanity. Ukrainian leaders are classified as “drug addicts” to delegitimize them and justify their replacement in areas conquered by Russia.
One stark instance is a 2022 article published by Russian state news that called for the “de-Ukrainianization” of the country, arguing that Ukrainians who resist occupation should be “re-educated” or “eliminated.” Researchers have also found that such slur-laden rhetoric is present in social media platforms like X and Telegram and has reached international audiences.
5. Organization: At this stage, hate groups are organized, militias are trained and armed, convicts are recruited into the army, and the armed forces are purged of officers, recruits, and any others who might oppose genocidal murders.
Russia’s actions against Ukraine are highly organized by Russian federal and regional authorities, locally hired occupation officials, the Russian military, and non-state militias like the former Wagner Group, and local proxies. These forces enforce Russian control, suppress resistance, and perpetrate systematic human rights abuses through military operations, police terror, and oppressive administrative rule, particularly in occupied territories and filtration camps.
Russian filtration camps in occupied territories serve as a centers of repression, subjecting Ukraine to a system of security checks and personal data collection, including body searches, interrogations about personal background, family ties, political views and allegiances, and physical and psychological abuse. Ukrainians identified as having any ties to Ukrainian forces or State institutions or possessing pro-Ukrainian or anti-Russian views face arbitrary detention under brutal conditions, torture, disappearances, and transfers to Russian penal colonies.
Organized forced deportation and forced displacement of Ukrainian civilians, especially to exile in Russia and Siberia, is a common punishment in filtration camps. Ukrainians who fail filtration interrogations are often tortured or killed, in a coordinated Russian strategy to eliminate Ukrainian resistance to total subjugation.
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) endure systematic abuse, including torture, sexual assault, and psychological torment. Russian authorities subject some POWs – including officers, specialized personnel, and those affiliated with particular battalions - to especially harsh conditions, including cold, overcrowding in tiny cells, filthy conditions, starvation, sleep deprivation, and lack of medical care. Brutal interrogations and torture methods, including beatings, electrocution, brutally hard labor, and psychological terror, are used to extract confessions and break prisoners’ will. POWs are forced to memorize the Russian anthem and propaganda and are denied contact with the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations.
The systematic forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia is an act of genocide directly prohibited by Article 2(e) of the Genocide Convention. Vladimir Putin and the official responsible for this kidnapping have been charged by the International Criminal Court for these deportations. Some children are separated from their families at filtration camps and placed in “re-education” camps or Russian forced adoption processes - an effort to erase their Ukrainian identity. Russia has fast-tracked these processes through targeted legislation and propaganda.
Russian authorities in occupied areas issue new Russian passports and birth certificates to Ukrainians, a denial of their Ukrainian identity and proof of the Russian intent to destroy the Ukrainian nation.
These coordinated, state-backed measures reveal a deliberate, organized effort to dismantle Ukraine’s cultural, national, and ethnic identity. Russia’s highly organized filtration and detention systems that target Ukrainians are strong evidence of Russia’s genocidal intent to destroy the Ukrainian nation. They are proof of the highly systematic nature of Russia's aggression.
6. Polarization: At this stage, moderates are targeted, arrested, and assassinated. Hate propaganda emphasizes the “us versus them” ideology that drives genocide. “If you are not with us, you are against us.” There is no middle ground. Moderates who attempt to negotiate peace are denounced as traitors.
The rhetoric used in Russia by the government and media against Ukrainians treats dissenters like Navalny as traitors. They are arrested and murdered. Terror is used to create such fear of arrest that dissenters are afraid to speak out. Independent news sources are silenced. Journalists censor themselves so that everything they write or broadcast adheres to the line of the ruling elite. The general population becomes convinced that the only acceptable way to think or talk must conform to the party in power. Categorizing ideas and practices as “non-Russian” and calling Ukrainians “Nazis” are intentional ways of othering them.
The manipulation of social media to spread disinformation and anti-Ukraine sentiments is prevalent in Russia. TikTok has reported the removal of over 12,000 fake accounts originating from Russia, while additional disinformation campaigns on Meta platforms have targeted European support for Ukraine.
Russian propaganda falsely accuses Ukraine of discrimination against Russia and claims that Ukraine is responsible for the ongoing war by refusing to “surrender,” despite Putin’s expressed intent to wholly absorb Ukraine. US President Trump has perpetuated this disinformation by portraying Ukraine as the aggressor.
7. Preparation: During the preparation stage, plans are made for the genocide. Death lists are compiled. Trial massacres are conducted, both as training for the genocidists and to test whether there will be any international response. If there is no international denunciation or sanctions, genocidists know they will get away with their crimes. If there are no credible threats of armed intervention, genocidists have a green light to invade and commit genocide with impunity.
In the months prior to the Russian invasion, Western intelligence agencies warned that the Russian attack was imminent. In addition to outlining strategy, by March 31, 2022, Putin physically prepared for invasion through the deployment of over 100,000 Russian troops along the border with Ukraine and within Crimea. The Kremlin also deployed naval forces in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. They assembled supply lines, including medical units to support the invasion. These preparations demonstrated a well-thought-out plan to invade Ukraine and sustain the war of conquest for years.
For over two decades under Putin’s dictatorship, dissenting voices within Russia were systematically silenced. Russia’s media companies were forced to submit to state control. Today, Putin rules virtually unchallenged. In April 2023, Russian lawmakers passed a bill requiring life sentences for those convicted of treason. The Russian government has threatened to imprison all protestors and anyone who shares information that contradicts the official Russian narrative on the war.
For centuries, Russia has viewed Ukraine as critical to its empire. For years, Putin has been vocal and transparent about his desire to retake Ukraine and absorb it into a Russian dominated state. Putin illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and suffered only weak financial sanctions. Putin outlined his plans in his 2021 essay "On the Unity of Russians and Ukrainians," in which he openly questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s borders and reiterated the idea of Ukrainians and Russians as “one people.”
Russian rhetoric, ideology, and military coordination with foreign allies (North Korea, Iran, China, and others) makes Russia’s strategy intent clear: to either wholly absorb or completely destroy Ukraine, with the goal of eradicating any independent Ukrainian identity or culture.
8. Persecution – The victim group’s most basic human rights are systematically violated through extrajudicial killings, torture, forced displacement, and expropriation.
Russia has committed extensive war crimes in Ukraine, including mass executions and the relentless bombardment of civilian dwellings, power plants, and dams. Russia has used incendiary weapons prohibited by international law. It has targeted and killed both soldiers and civilians in areas it captures.
Rape and sexual assault by Russian troops is widespread in occupied territories. These war crimes are inflicted upon Ukrainians of all genders and ages with the deliberate aim of destroying existing and future generations. This includes forced pregnancies resulting from rape by Russian soldiers and genital mutilation hinder and prevent procreation, a direct violation of Article 2(d) of the Genocide Convention.
In addition to torture and rape, Russia continues to abduct Ukrainian children, forcibly placing them in so-called “re-education camps” with the intention of erasing their Ukrainian heritage. This and other blatant violations of international law align with the UN Security Council’s six grave violations against children in times of war.
Russia’s persecution extends to the eradication of all cultures that are considered non-Russian, including the culture of Crimean Tatars. The persecution of this ethnic minority dates back to the eighteenth century, and was at its apex when Stalin deported all Tatars to Siberia. Russia has intensified its oppression of Tatars since its 2014 of Crimea. Since the 2022 full-scale invasion, of Ukraine, Russia has employed widespread arrests, imprisonment, and torture of Tatars.
Recent discussions between Putin and President Trump about ending the war have included proposals by Trump for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, specifically Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea. Trump tries to justify this appeasement by claiming that he wants to stop the heavy losses of Russian forces that have resulted from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The parallel is the appeasement by Neville Chamberlain of Hitler at Munich, where the Nazi dictator won territory without struggle by making a false promise of peace. The result was the Nazi invasion of Europe.
9. Extermination: At this stage, the killing legally defined as genocide begins. Those who commit genocide often justify their mass murder by asserting that they are “purifying” their society by “exterminating” those who are less than human and are a threat to them.
Russian forces are engaged in blatant acts of extermination by indiscriminately targeting Ukrainians, murdering civilians in areas they conquer, and violating Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention by executing prisoners of war (POWs). Reliable sources report deaths of Ukrainian troops at over 100,000 since the beginning of the war. The UN estimates that at least 153,000 Ukrainians have been killed, including both soldiers and civilians. 60,000 Ukrainians remain missing.
Russia controls nearly 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory. According to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 10.6 million Ukrainians have been displaced, with over 6.9 million spread across Europe. Ten percent of Ukrainian homes have been destroyed, and a quarter of the population is impoverished.
10. Denial: Denial runs from the beginning of the genocidal process and lasts long after the killing is over. Unless trials prove that genocide occurred and determine who committed it, denial may last for over a hundred years, as it has in Turkey about the Armenian Genocide.
Perpetrators refuse to acknowledge their crimes. They destroy evidence, downplay victim numbers, and shift blame, even claiming that victims provoked the genocide. Killings are framed as spontaneous outbreaks rather than deliberate state policy, while eyewitnesses and critics are discredited. Denial with impunity is the best predictor of future genocide. Countries that do not face their past crimes are over three times as likely to repeat them.
Russia continues to deny its past genocides against Ukraine. Russia refuses to acknowledge the Holodomor genocide of 1932 -1933, when over three million Ukrainians starved in Stalin’s man-made famine.
In March 2022, Russia passed censorship laws criminalizing even calling the current war in Ukraine a “war,” making the crime punishable by up to fifteen years of imprisonment. As the world reeled in shock from the Bucha massacre in March 2022, Russian officials dismissed the killings as a staged provocation by Ukrainian forces, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov calling it a "fake attack." Putin even gave medals to the Russian troops who committed the Bucha atrocities.
Ahead of Ukraine’s full-scale invasion, Russia’s Supreme Court banned Memorial, a human rights group documenting Soviet political crimes. Russia denies all of its current crimes in Ukraine. Putin denies the mass rapes committed by Russian troops. Russia disguises its forced transfer of Ukrainian children as rescue missions and vacations to ‘summer camps’.
Conclusion
Three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces continue to expand control over Ukrainian territory. They systematically commit widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of genocide. In Russian occupied territories, the Ukrainian language, culture, and education are banned.
All over Ukraine, Russian missiles and drones indiscriminately target civilian apartment buildings, schools, and hospitals. Russia destroys Ukrainian power plants to freeze Ukrainians in winter. Russian troops rape, torture, and execute civilians. Russia continues to forcibly transfer thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.
The evidence is undeniable. Every stage of the Ten Stages of Genocide is present in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia has committed every act of genocide in the Genocide Convention.
Since 2022, Putin’s rhetoric has made it clear that this war is not just about territorial control but is aimed at the eradication of Ukrainian identity. Putin’s goal is Russian supremacy. He seeks to destroy the Ukrainian nation and rip Ukrainian culture out of the multicolored tapestry of humanity.
This is genocide. The US and all other nations must defeat Putin’s attempt to impoverish the whole human race. We must reaffirm our commitment to justice and hold Russia accountable for its crimes. The time to stop this genocide is now.
[1] Dr. Stanton believes he should have simply used the word “Processes” rather than “Stages,” which wrongly implies a linear order. But his model is now so widely used that dropping “stages” would only confuse people.
Copyright 2025 Emily Mullin and Genocide Watch
This article is under Creative Commons copyright. It may be freely republished with full credit to its author, in its entirety and without alteration by non-profit entities. Profit making republishers must obtain a license.
