Deportation of Ukrainians into Russia: Why Is It Happening? What Can Be Done?

As part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s government has deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens from the country into Russia. Four experts in international law and genocide discussed the sources, extent and impact of Russia’s actions.

 

 

 

Eugene Finkel is a professor of International Relations at John Hopkins University. He works at the intersection of political science and history. He was born in Ukraine and grew up in Israel. Finkel received a BA in Political Science and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on how institutions and individuals respond to extreme situations: mass violence, state collapse, and rapid change.

 

Nataliia Hendel is a research fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She is a board member of Support for Fundamental Research Fund (Odesa, Ukraine) and holds an LLM and a PhD in international law. She is an expert and trainer on international humanitarian law for teachers and civil servants conducted by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. She was an expert and trainer on international humanitarian law for teachers conducted by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union together with the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (2021–2022).

 

Kateryna Rashevska, lawyer from the Regional Centre for Human Rights. Legal expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights in Kyiv and a Ph.D. fellow at the Department of International Law, Educational and Scientific Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

 

Oleksandra Romantsova is the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties and a human rights activist. Since May 2014, Oleksandra has been working at the Center for Civil Liberties, where will the end of 2016 she coordinated the project of mobile observation of human rights violations and war crimes in the east of Ukraine in the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone (ATO) and political persecution in occupied Crimea. Since 2015 and till now, she has also been responsible for international advocacy of the Center’s work. Actively engaged in advocacy of international support for Ukraine and bringing responsible for war crimes in Ukraine to justice. Laureate of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize as Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties.

 

Lucan Way (chair) is a professor of Political Science and co-Director of the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine, CERES.