The original juxtaposition of the two tweets wasn’t intended to imply that, so we are getting a little off-track. It was intended to contrast the Russians employing a denazification narrative, yet managing to deliver collateral damage to one of the key sites of Holocaust remembrance.
As to there being a potential holocaust of Ukrainians, no, not in the sense of what Nazi Germany did, at least not in the short term, but reprisals to resistors would happen openly. Russia already suppresses any opposition sentiment at home.
I’m also in no doubt that should Putin seize Ukraine, he and any continuity successors would embark on a programme that would look to erode Ukrainian identity, eliminate Ukrainian nationalism and push the Ukrainian language to the margins, suffocated by Russia’s cultural output. What do you think the threats to “decommunise” and “denazify” Ukraine meant? What do you think is meant by questioning Ukraine’s right to even exist and the “Ukrainian question”? Russia has sought to eliminate other identities and homogenise the people in its empire for over a century.
Even now, it seems as if China wants to eradicate Uighur identity, and we all seem powerless to stop it. That seems to be happening in plain sight.
