We Cannot Take Our Eyes Off of Putin’s Insidious Attempts to Erase Ukraine’s Identity
The people of Ukraine hold a distinct cultural identity and history. Yet Putin is waging an insidious propaganda campaign to erase that identity. And we cannot let him. Putin holds a delusional fantasy of rebuilding the Soviet empire, going so far as to argue that Ukraine doesn’t have a right to statehood because Ukraine has no history, no culture, no people distinct from Russia. This view is patently false; there are cities and towns across Ukraine that have existed for thousands of years. Yet Putin is trying to erase this history, and it is particularly alarming to see that since Russia’s invasion, more than 150 cultural sites in Ukraine have been damaged.
After six months of war, we see that Putin’s use of propaganda is not just a tool used to advance his military campaign, but also serves to dehumanize the Ukrainian people and distract and desensitize onlookers from the atrocities being committed. The anti-Semitism laced in his disinformation is of particular concern. The Kremlin has repeatedly boasted of a military mission to “demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.” These words are dangerous and undermine the horrors of the Holocaust. They are an affront to victims of Nazism, including President Zelenskyy’s own relatives who died at the hands of Nazis.
We know that Russia established “filtration camps” in both Russian and Ukrainian territory even before its February 24 invasion. Further, there are reports that Russian authorities are separating children from their Ukrainian parents and detaining or disappearing Ukrainians who do not pass “filtration” — efforts to Russify Ukraine’s people along with its territory.
Putin’s propaganda campaign is far more dangerous than a tactic to advance his military objectives; it is a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Ukrainian people. He is not just deploying misleading communication tactics to advance his agenda — these lies are part of an agenda to erase the Ukrainian identity and culture.
Ukrainians are proud of their history, their culture, their language — and they are willing to fight and die to defend their right to exist as a free and sovereign people. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dawn of a new era of democracy in Europe, Ukraine has held free and fair elections, strengthened its democratic institutions and made clear its ambitions to be part of the Euro-Atlantic community.
Ukraine is on the frontlines of the fight for democracy and self-determination, values that the U.S. was founded on and that our transatlantic allies share. As Americans, we must continue to remember why Ukraine matters — it matters because we are bound by our word and moral obligation to speak up and act in the face of human suffering, mass atrocities and challenges to democracy. It matters because if Putin succeeds in devastating Ukraine, there is no telling where his brutality will stop.
We made a global vow of “Never Again” and those words carry a commitment. That is why I am taking action in the Senate to require coordinated efforts to collect and maintain evidence of war crimes and atrocities committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and recently joined a resolution recognizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine as genocide. Ukrainians are fighting for their very survival and for the survival of liberal democracies around the world. Russia’s crusade to erase Ukraine’s population and identity must be stopped.
