A ceasefire must not mean the destruction of Ukraine

Flanked by minefields, with the deadly percussion of shelling in the background, we made our way cautiously into recently liberated Kherson.

- BEL TREW

This was November 2022, in the southeastern corner of Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces had launched a successful counteroffensive against Russia to reclaim land lost in Moscow’s full-scale invasion. At the time, it was the latest in a string of stunning wins for the Ukrainians, who, against the odds, were pushing Russia back.

As in other recently liberated cities, dazed residents emerged from their homes for the first time in months with stories of disappearances, detentions, torture, and death. Leering down on them were the dystopian billboards of happy faces promoting Russia’s so-called referendum to annex Kherson and three other recently occupied regions of Ukraine.

For years, I have tracked Russia’s bloody actions inside occupied territory. The referendums, denounced globally as coercive and a sham, were just one part of a concerted effort to quickly and thoroughly “Russify” occupied territory, an action Ukrainian officials believe is intended to permanently change the demographic reality on the ground and erase any notion of Ukraine and its statehood.

From our own investigations into occupied territory, we have documented how Russian soldiers have forcibly transferred and deported thousands of Ukrainians in occupied areas deeper into Russian-held land or even into Russia itself. Many – including those with disabilities, the elderly, and children – are being held incommunicado and forced to accept Russian passports to secure pensions, medical treatment or medicines.