‘Liberation’ of ‘Younger Brothers’ or Genocide of Subhumans? Genocidal Discourses on Ukrainians in Putin's Regime

This article explores Russia's genocidal discourses on Ukrainians, focusing on the predominant narrative that frames cultural genocide as the ‘liberation’ of Ukrainians through the erasure of their cultural identity. Existing literature tends to overlook this form of genocidal discourse, which diverges from typical ‘othering’ by instead claiming that Ukrainians are essentially the same as Russians, with those who wish to maintain their Ukrainian identity seen as needing to be eliminated. In this discourse, the destruction of Ukrainian culture is portrayed as an act of salvation. The more conventional genocidal rhetoric, which calls for the physical extermination of Ukrainians, remains a minority perspective and is primarily propagated by pro-regime ultranationalist hardliners. This article places these discourses within the context of Russia's long-standing nationalist thought, where the ‘Ukrainian question’ has been a central, existential issue for over a century.