The United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948 characterized several 'acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious people.' Others have used somewhat broader categories or groupings. Genocide was a term first used in the 1940s, describing the Holocaust - Nazi Germany's effort to eradicate all the Jews in Europe and elsewhere (along with other categories of people deemed undesirable). But it was the emergence of atrocities in towns such as Bucha that caught the world's attention, spawned a fresh round of international sanctions and prompted renewed talk of war crimes and genocide. But as the Russians retreated they left evidence of a massacre, widely documented by Western journalists, that included women and children and men who had been bound.Д¬ities and towns in Ukraine had already been pounded by Russian bombs and missiles fired indiscriminately at densely populated areas. The latter thrust was stymied well shy of its objectives by the now-famous resistance of the Ukrainian armed forces and armed civilians. And indeed, a little more than a week later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine - not only in the Donbas but on the highway to Kyiv. Still, the sudden prominence of the genocide term this past winter seemed a warning that Putin was about to make a move. It is often invoked in discussions of Russian ethnicity and the importance of protecting culturally Russian people wherever they may live. But the accusation has been part of the Russian media campaign against the government in Kyiv since a popular uprising deposed a pro-Putin autocrat there in 2014. Putin provided no evidence for this claim at the time and has not since. Russia even complained to the United Nations Security Council that Ukraine was 'exterminating the civilian population' in the Donbas. Thereafter, a chorus of other Russian voices in government and the media took up the theme. 'What is happening in the Donbas today is genocide,' Putin told his country on Feb. In February, Putin accused Ukrainian forces of killing Russian-speaking separatists in the eastern part of the country (known as the Donbas for its geographic role as the basin of the Don River). There is a degree of irony in the use of the word 'genocide' at this stage of the war because it figured so prominently in Putin's own rhetoric prior to the invasion.

That list, too, is often misunderstood and subject to interpretation, but it was begun in 1979 and used by subsequent presidents in both parties to justify various acts against several countries вЂ“ including Iraq, Sudan, Libya and South Yemen. to add Russia to its list of 'state sponsors of terrorism,' which now includes the regimes in Syria, Iran, Cuba and North Korea. Most recently, Zelenskyy has called on the U.S. The Ukrainian president has also personalized the struggle, calling Putin out for war crimes and labeling the killing of civilians in Ukraine as genocide. It should also be noted that in each instance of provocative language Biden has been essentially been following the lead of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Yet each has also set a tone for much of the war debate that followed. It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being вЂ“ being able to be Ukrainian.'Д®ach presidential turn of the rhetorical ratchet in recent weeks has made news, catching NATO allies off guard and prompting 'clarification' from the White House. Deliberate targeting of civilians is definitionally a war crime.Д«ut Biden went further: 'Yes, I called it genocide. Many observers have suggested that if Ukraine is right about the systematic murder of its civilians, these acts fit the definition of 'war crimes' or 'crimes against humanity' as understood by international courts for generations. (The White House subsequently walked back the latter comment.) Nonetheless, his use of the word genocide detonated in the media and spread shock waves through the international community.

In remarks made after Putin's armed forces invaded Ukraine in February, Biden had called the atrocities reported from that country 'war crimes.' He had called Putin a ' war criminal' who said he needed to be removed from power. This past week, President Biden again ratcheted up his rhetoric when he told an audience in Iowa President Vladimir Putin was ' a dictator commits genocide.' And as the real struggle in Ukraine continues to intensify, so does the accompanying war of words.

Cities are being bombed, warships sunk and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed.

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