Beyond Genocide, Ethnocide and Identicide: Russia's ‘Strategic Imperial Demographic Policy

Following the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken from occupied territories and transferred to Russia. On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court officially recognized these actions as a war crime. Based on extensive documentary research as well as visual materials, this article argues that the Russian Federation is executing a systematic policy of child abduction. Frame analysis is used to understand the rationale behind the actions and narratives of both Ukraine and the Russian Federation. The discussion critically examines the applicability and limitations of terms such as genocide, ethnocide and identicide, contending that the phenomenon in question transcends these conceptual categories. Instead, the article proposes defining this forced transfer of Ukrainian children as a ‘strategic imperial demographic policy’.