Delmarva Today 4-15-22
Harold Wilson’s guest is Dr. Gregory Ference, a professor of history at Salisbury University and an expert on Eastern Europe. Greg has appeared on Delmarva Today previously to discuss the war in Ukraine. In this episode, he discuss the current atrocities on innocent civilians carried out by the Russian army in Ukraine and whether these war crimes, and they are certainly that, rise to the level of genocide. In an interview with President Zelenskyy on Face the Nation on April 3, Zelenskyy said, "Indeed, this is genocide — the elimination of the whole nation and the people. " He said that Russia's invasion, now in its sixth week, is about the destruction and extermination of the more than 100 nationalities in his country. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said that the streets of Bucha and the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin and Hostomel looked like a "scene from a horror movie" as the streets were covered with scores of killed civilians. Zelenskyy's office shared images with Face the Nation showing at least one mass grave and what appeared to be bodies of civilians lining the streets. President Biden has also recently called these atrocities genocide.
Like, Biden, we have all seen these heart-rending images and hold our collective breath in the anticipation of worse to come. And, even though, it certainly doesn’t matter to the dead if their deaths were war-crimes or genocide, President Zelenskyy and now President Biden insist that the world see this wanton destruction of innocent human life as genocide. Professor Ference helps us understand why this difference might be important and to place the destruction of Ukraine and its people in a historical context.
Tune in and listen to Dr. Ference discuss the impact of this affirmation by President Biden and whether it might indicate a change in the response of the US and NATO to the war.