Is Russia Carrying Out Genocide in Ukraine?

A "genocide" is occurring inside Ukraine, insist leaders from both invading Russia and the under-siege former Soviet satellite state – but each country is accusing the other of perpetrating the atrocity and, critically, experts say that neither nation may be correct.

The first mention came from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said during a Feb. 24 televised speech announcing the Ukraine offensive that the purpose of the operation was "to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime." But aside from vague and unsupported allegations of an impending Ukraine military attack on the Russian separatists in Ukraine's Donbass region, Putin has produced no evidence for his claims, which have been regarded as baseless by much of the globe.