Latvia calls Russia’s actions in Ukraine genocide as Moscow denies dehumanizing language
Latvia’s foreign minister says Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine meet the Genocide Convention test, while Russia’s UN envoy rejects claims that Moscow describes Ukrainians as “cockroaches and lice.”
Latvia has moved into the camp of states publicly describing Russia’s war in Ukraine as genocide, sharpening the legal and political language around documented atrocities.
Latvia’s foreign minister, Baiba Braže, said Russia is committing genocide against Ukraine. She argued that the atrocities meet the acts set out in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, which defines genocide and lists specific forms of violence and harm against protected groups.
At the United Nations Security Council, Russia’s representative Vasily Nebenzya pushed back against a related charge. He said that the permanent representative of Ukraine had insinuated that Russia calls Ukrainians “cockroaches and lice”, and he called that a lie.
Those terms are associated with historical propaganda that portrayed targeted groups as vermin before mass violence. Whether Russian officials or state media have used comparable phrases is one of the questions researchers and lawyers examine when they assess potential incitement or genocidal intent.
In parallel, senior European figures are arguing that Russia has already torn up the core rules meant to govern security on the continent. Kaja Kallas, speaking in her role in EU leadership, said she sees at least 30 international agreements where Russia undertook to respect sovereignty and territorial integrity. She said the problem now is that Russia is not keeping those obligations.
Kallas cited the Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons with the expectation it would not be attacked by Russia, as an example of commitments now seen as broken.
She has also commented on efforts to talk about peace. On discussions about Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, she said she does not have very high expectations. In her view, there have been no signs that Russia is willing to negotiate in good faith, and she pointed to ongoing killings of civilians and attacks on civilian infrastructure.
These statements will feed into how future courts and international bodies assess Russia’s actions and intent in Ukraine. They also signal how far some European governments are prepared to go in publicly framing the war.
Key developments to watch are whether more states adopt Latvia’s genocide language, how Ukrainian legal teams reference such statements in international cases, and whether Russia adjusts its public rhetoric about Ukrainians in response to the growing focus on dehumanizing speech.
Sources
- OSINT