The message “Ukrainian nation does not exist at all” is being consistently communicated on the Russian TV channels air, together with calls to exterminate Ukrainians. And Ukrainians as nation in such statements are defined in different way: “Ukrainism”, “political Ukrainism:, “Lesser Russians”, “New Russians”, “Bandera’s nation”. Attempts to split the Ukrainians in two groups are often explicit in these statements. One of these groups is called fascists, Banderites and Nazis, the other – ethnic Russians, Lesser Russians and New Russians.

The air of Russian TV channels is full of calls to exterminate “bad” Ukrainians who hate Russians, and to “protect”, “cure”, “save” or “re-educate” those Ukrainians who are loyal to Russia. All these messages can be considered calls for genocide of Ukrainians on the ground of national origin.

Calls for persecution and massacre of Ukrainians are named “denazification”. Communicating these messages, some speakers contradict each other. In some speeches they state that Ukrainians is a fictious nation that does not exist. In other citations they call to exterminate the Ukrainian nation as dangerous illness. Russian propagandists urge to “return” the Russian identity to all Ukrainians by force.

Some TV presenters claim that Ukrainians’ mentality reformatted for the last hundred years, and the Ukrainians have just forgotten about their “genuine” Russian identity.

Calls to exterminate the Ukrainian nation are often enforced with metaphors and other statements comparing the Ukrainian identity to a hazardous virus or insanity to be forcibly treated. For instance, Russian “war correspondent” Yuriy Kot claimed on air of ZVIEZDA, Russian Ministry of Defence TV channel, that “Ukrainians must be exterminated once and forever”. And the argument used was the phrase that “all this Nazi collaborationism must be erased with scalpel.”

Speaking on Komsomolskaya Pravda radio, Russian historian and writer Yegor Kholmogorov claimed that there existed no independent Ukrainian national idea, and called to treat Ukrainians for this “virus”. However, a few days earlier, the same Mr. Kholmogorov posted on his Telegram channel that “denazification” in Ukraine means a full extermination of “criminal Banderite nation”.

Russian commentator and blogger Roman Antonovskiy urges to erase “Ukrainism” as a political concept of Anti-Russia and reasons this by saying that otherwise there would be always people in Ukraine willing to fight with Russians.

The abovementioned persons (Mr. Kot, Mr. Kholmogorov, Mr. Antonovskiy) and other permanent guests of the national Russian media air also have their own Telegram channels where they consistently communicate calls for genocide of Ukrainians. They advertise their Telegram channels on the national media air, increasing constantly the number of subscribers.

Such “influencers” also quote regularly other speakers on their Telegram channels, less known but far more radical who call to exterminate the Ukrainians.

The speakers who call to exterminate the Ukrainian nation:

Yegor Kholmogorov, historian and commentator

Yaroslav Bielousov, political scientist

Nadana Fridrikhson, TV presenter

Roman Golovanov, TV presenter

Konstantin Knyrik, commentator

Vladimir Rogov, politician

Sergey Mardan, TV presenter

Dmitriy Rogozin, politician

Yuriy Kot, journalist

Roman Antonovskiy, political scientist and commentator

Information resources communicating calls to exterminate the Ukrainian nation:

KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA radio, ZVIEZDA TV Channel, ROSSIYA 1 TV Channel, Solovyov LIVE TV Channel, POLITNAVIGATOR website, Telegram messenger, Rutube and Smotrim.ru platforms.

The content was selected by the Crimean Human Rights Group with WORLD OF WAR analytical service developed by CHANGING TOGETHER PA. TV shows of such Russian media as NTV, PERVYI KANAL, ROSSIA 1, ZVIEZDA, TVTs, ROSSIA 24, LDNR were reviewed during the monitoring. The monitoring list also included selected video channels of some Russian and Crimean media and speakers with many subscribers in YouTube and Rutube social networks and Telegram messenger.

The methodology for selecting and assessing the content was developed by Yulia Krylova-Hrek, PhD (Psychology), IRES researcher (Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University (Sweden), Ass. Prof. (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy National University), given the results of the previous Crimean Human Rights Group study: “Hate Speech in Online Media Publicizing Events in Crimea”.

For examples of statements that according to the Crimean Human Rights Group analysts, feature calls for genocide, commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and propaganda of waging the aggressive war in the territory of Ukraine, see Annex 1