Timothy Snyder's theses at a meeting of the UN Security Council

The Yale University professor actively opposes russian propaganda. In particular, he recently spoke at a meeting of the UN Security Council convened at the request of Moscow to discuss "russophobia."

Snyder explained in detail how russia uses this term to justify its policy of genocide of the Ukrainian people. Below are some thoughts from his speech:

• If you stand in russia with a sign saying "no to war," you will be arrested and very likely imprisoned. If you stand in Ukraine with a sign that says "no to war," regardless of what language it is in, nothing will happen to you. russia is a country of one major language where you can say little. Ukraine is a country of two languages where you may say what you like.

• The claim that Ukrainians have to be killed because they have a mental illness known as "russophobia" is bad for Russians, because it educates them in genocide.

• When an empire attacks, the empire claims that it is the victim. The rhetoric that Ukrainians are somehow "russophobes" is being used by the russian state to justify a war of aggression. The language is very important. But it is the setting in which it is used that matters most. This is the setting: the russian invasion of Ukraine itself, the destruction of whole Ukrainian cities, the execution of Ukrainian local leaders, the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, the displacement of almost half the Ukrainian population, the destruction of hundreds of hospitals and thousands of schools, the deliberate targeting of water and heat supplies during the winter. That is the setting. That is what is actually happening.

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