Commentary: Prosecuting genocide is not ‘optional’ for any nation

Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy contended that atrocities committed by Russian troops against unarmed Ukrainian citizens constituted war crimes.

“This is real genocide,” Zelenskyy said while surveying the death toll in the town of Bucha.

President Joe Biden also used the term “genocide” in discussing the killings.

The United Nations Genocide Convention defines genocide as acting “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group ... (by) killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions