IV 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 16 
Recognizing Russian actions in Ukraine as a genocide. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 6, 2025 
Mr. COHEN (for himself, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. BOYLE of Penn-
sylvania, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. DOGGETT, Ms. STEVENS, Mr. QUIGLEY, 
Mr. LAWLER, Mr. COSTA, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. TORRES of California, Mr. 
VEASEY, Mr. KEATING, and Ms. KAPTUR) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing Russian actions in Ukraine as a genocide. 
Whereas the Russian Federation’s illegal, premeditated, 
unprovoked, and brutal war against Ukraine includes ex-
tensive, systematic, and flagrant atrocities against the 
people of Ukraine; 
Whereas Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (hereinafter the 
‘‘Genocide Convention’’), approved and opened for signa-
ture in 1948 and entered into force in 1951, defines 
genocide as ‘‘any of the following acts committed with in-
tent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, 
racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of 
the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to 
members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the 
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•HRES 16 IH 
group conditions of life calculated to bring about its 
physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing 
measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) 
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another 
group’’; 
Whereas substantial and significant evidence documenting 
widespread, systematic actions against the Ukrainian 
people committed by Russian Forces under the direction 
of Russian Federation political leadership meets one or 
more of the criteria under Article II of the Genocide Con-
vention, including— 
(1) killing members of the Ukrainian people in mass 
atrocities through deliberate and regularized murders of 
fleeing civilians and civilians in passing as well as pur-
poseful targeting of homes, schools, hospitals, shelters, 
and other residential and civilian areas; 
(2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to the 
Ukrainian people by launching indiscriminate attacks 
against civilians and civilian areas, conducting willful 
strikes on humanitarian evacuation corridors, and em-
ploying widespread and systematic sexual violence against 
Ukrainian civilians, including women, children, and men; 
(3) deliberately inflicting upon the Ukrainian people 
conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical 
destruction in whole or in part, including displacement 
due to annihilated villages, towns, and cities left devoid 
of food, water, shelter, electricity, and other basic neces-
sities, starvation caused by the destruction of farmlands 
and agricultural equipment, the placing of Russian land-
mines across thousands of acres of useable fields, and 
blocking the delivery of humanitarian food aid; 
(4) imposing measures intended to prevent births 
among the Ukrainian people, demonstrated by the Rus-
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•HRES 16 IH 
sian military’s expansive and direct targeting of mater-
nity hospitals and other medical facilities and systematic 
attacks against residential and civilian areas as well as 
humanitarian corridors intended to deprive Ukrainians of 
safe havens within their own country and the material 
conditions conducive to childrearing; and 
(5) forcibly mass transferring millions of Ukrainian 
civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom are children, to 
Russia or Russian Federation-controlled territories; 
Whereas the Russian Federation’s State-level intent in favor 
of these heinous crimes against humanity has been dem-
onstrated through frequent pronouncements and other 
forms of official communication denying Ukrainian na-
tionhood and sovereignty, including President Putin’s 
ahistorical claims that Ukraine is part of a ‘‘single 
whole’’ Russian nation with ‘‘no historical basis’’ for 
being an independent country; 
Whereas some Russian soldiers and brigades accused of com-
mitting war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere were re-
warded with medals by President Putin; 
Whereas the Russian State-owned media outlet RIA Novosti’s 
published the article ‘‘What Should Russia do with 
Ukraine’’ which outlines ‘‘de-Nazification’’ as meaning 
‘‘de-Ukrainianization’’ or the destruction of Ukraine; 
Whereas Article I of the Genocide Convention confirms ‘‘that 
genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time 
of war, is a crime under international law which they un-
dertake to prevent and to punish’’; and 
Whereas additional documentation and analysis of atrocities 
committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine may be 
needed to punish those responsible, the substantial and 
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•HRES 16 IH 
significant documentation already undertaken and com-
bined with statements showing intent, compel urgent ac-
tion to prevent further acts of genocide: Now, therefore, 
be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns the Russian Federation for com-
mitting acts of genocide against the Ukrainian peo-
ple; 
(2) calls on the United States, in cooperation 
with North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Euro-
pean Union allies, to undertake measures to support 
the Ukrainian Government to prevent further acts of 
Russian genocide against the Ukrainian people; and 
(3) supports tribunals and international crimi-
nal investigations to hold Russian political leaders 
and military personnel to account for a war of ag-
gression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 
genocide. 
Æ 
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