Many people have, for some reason, been arguing over what the ultimate goal of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been despite much of the evidence that we’ve seen in recent weeks, and the repeated crimes against humanity that we’ve seen across recent weeks.

The Genocide Handbook

A recently translated article, “what should Russia do with Ukraine” that was initially published by RIA Novosti, one of the “main voices of Russian propaganda” has shone a clear light on the goals of the Russian president, and as the crimes against humanity in Bucha showed us, we should be terrified of what he will do if he’s allowed to have his way.

Calling for the destruction of the “Nazis who took up arms” in defence of their country, Timofey Sergeytsev refuses to make a distinction between the military and civilian populations. He argues that the only way that the war can end is the “unconditional” domination of Ukraine and her people, which would lead to a “period of denazification [of] no less than one generation”.

The author of this article even goes further in his demands, calling for "the “redemption of [Ukrainian] guilt before Russia” along with a total ban of any non-Russian support for the country, which would lead the process of de-Ukrainization and a rectification of the attempts to build a Ukrainian nation state.

This “de-Ukrainization” would necessitate the murder of “the Banderite elites” whose “re-education is impossible”, and would be accompanied by the clearing of “the social bog”, those who “actively and passively supported [the government] through action and inaction”, who “must go through the hardships of war and internalize the lives experience”.

The horrors of this de-Ukrainization would lead to a dystopian control over the media within Ukraine through the “installation of the Russian information space”, authoritarian and puritanical education systems, “mass investigations” aimed at finding and punishing those who worked against Russia, the implementation of forced labour, as well as the imposition of other forms of control that would eliminate the sovereignty of the subjugated population who would be doomed to a fate of suffering.

The very real horrors of this plan is extraordinarily clear for those who have an understanding of history, and we have already seen what the early stages of this de-nazification would be in the Russian Occupation of Bucha, which was occupied between 27 February and 1 April.

A minimum of 410 innocent Ukrainian citizens were massacred without any remorse. Many had their their hands behind their back in signs of summary executions, many of the bodies had been mutilated and burnt, children as young as fourteen years old had been raped by Russian soldiers, citizens were crushed within their vehicles by Russian tanks, and everything had been done to dehumanize and punish Ukrainian citizens for doing nothing but exist.

The reality of the Russian plan is that all Ukrainians will become the victims of a systematic effort to break the spirit of the country, and to force a russification of the population through violent subjugation, rape, the murder of male populations, and the indiscriminate destruction of all things Ukrainian.

What must be done

Let’s be absolutely clear: The goal of Putin isn’t just the liquidation and dismantling of Ukraine, but of everything that stands in the way of his imperial ambitions for Russia.

If he gets his way with Ukraine involves the subjugation of all the independent states in Eastern Europe, the Baltics, the Balkans, and if deemed necessary, the absolute destruction of NATO and the European Union. Nothing that could stand up to Russia would be allowed to stand freely, and he will actively try to break apart anything that can damage his imperialist goals, which, oddly enough, resemble what we know as fascism far more than anything Ukraine has done as a state or as a people.

As I highlighted in my recent article for the Brussels Times, we simply cannot hold back when it comes to how we react to Russia’s abominable behaviour, and we need to put forward a show of strength that makes it clear that the European Union and the west as a whole will not stand idly by and allow these crimes to happen.

When Russia moves to threaten potential NATO states with the stationing of nuclear weapons near them, the West has to move to support these states and actively show that it will not allow its allies to be bullied. When Russia attacks a state militarily, the West has to actively engage in the unreserved support of these sovereign, democratic states that have a right to exist.

Not only this, but we must stop putting up walls between us and our neighbours just because Russia has dictated that they must remain isolated and exposed to their influence and threats, and because we are intimidated by the threat of a suicidal act of nuclear war that is unlikely to manifest itself.

We have to become more accepting of these frontier states that are looking to rejoin our institutions and who are making a conscious decision to “westernise” and join institutions such as the European Union or NATO.

Ultimately, we have to make an effort to become far more geopolitical and far more powerful in our stance and actions. We have a genocidal state on our very border who has attempted to eradicate a state, population, culture and language, and this has to be the red line which calls us to action to fight for our values, for our peoples, and for our futures.

Doing anything else, shrinking from adversity and from our moral obligation, is a betrayal of our ancestors and those who built the world around us, and a betrayal of the future generations who will suffer because of our cowardice and our failure.