DISINFO: Second Srebrenica to happen in Donbas if Ukraine receives control over the border
SUMMARY
In case Ukraine takes control over the border, the massacre [like the one] in Srebrenica might be repeated. I will just remind those who forgot: this is the bloodiest episode of the collapse of Yugoslavia; 8,000 dead in a few days in July [1995].
RESPONSE
The claim is unfounded and in line with the pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives on the situation in Ukraine and the war in Donbas. The original claim was made on 9 December by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, who warned that if Kyiv is granted control over the border with Russia in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas, there would be a second Srebrenica. Ukraine has been accused several times of committing genocide against ethnic Russians in Ukraine. Human rights missions that traveled to Ukraine in 2014 did not find evidence that the Russian minority would have been in danger. See, for instance, the Advisory Committee’s Ad hoc report on the situation of national minorities in Ukraine, adopted on 1 April 2014 by the Council of Europe; June 2014 report on the human rights situation in Ukraine by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; and the statement by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities on her visit to Ukraine, published on 4 April 2014. On the latter negotiations in the Normandy Format, Ukraine insisted that the political part of the Minsk agreements, such as elections, will be implemented only after Ukraine receives full control over the 450-km long border with Russia in Donbas. See similar narratives alleging that Russia prevented genocide in Donbas and that Russia will not stay on the sidelines if Ukraine starts carrying out a genocide against its own, Ukrainian, population in Donbas.