This article originally appeared in the Hill Times.
By Stanley Kutcher and Marcus Kolga, July 24, 2024
The Russian bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8 represents a brutal new low in President Vladimir Putin’s genocidal war against Ukraine.
Video footage showing Russian missiles deliberately striking the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital—the equivalent of Toronto’s SickKids Hospital—demonstrates the calculated, criminal intent behind this atrocity.
Analysts with the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it is “highly likely” the hospital took a direct hit from a Russian KH-101 cruise missile, the latest in the 1,878 attacks on Ukrainian health-care facilities since February 2022, as documented by the World Health Organization.
The deliberate targeting of young patients and their families is a callous protraction of Russia’s broader attack against the children of Ukraine. Since the start of its invasion, tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped, and forcibly relocated to remote regions of Russia. There, their Ukrainian identity and language are systematically erased through a vicious process of psychological indoctrination.
For the youngest victims of Russia’s colonial terror, accountability and justice are beyond their reach. Unless the West responds forcefully, they’ll continue to be targeted. The international community’s reluctance to send weapons to Ukraine to defend its skies and strike back beyond its borders have facilitated these vicious attacks, and will enable future Russian atrocities. While United States President Joe Biden is being rightfully criticized for his prohibition of Ukraine using American weapons to strike at the source of these attacks, all NATO country leaders—including ours—must share in this shamefully misguided strategy.
On July 9, the Czech minister of foreign affairs, Jan Lipavský, demanding an explanation from the Russian ambassador to the UN, said the “murderers who attacked children in hospital were the dregs of humanity and that he should relay that message in Moscow.” Every western government, including Canada’s, should do the same.
The demand for an explanation should be followed by the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Canada, and a declaration that, at the very least, the Russian state is a terrorist organization.
As far as we know, however, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not even summoned the Russian ambassador to address this latest atrocity.
Inexplicably, some 70 Russian diplomats remain in our country, in addition to honorary consuls, who use their privileged position to sow disinformation and advance Russia’s malign interests. The continued presence of these diplomats, representing a country waging war on a UN member state in violation of international law, begs the question: exactly what are they doing here?
Since the infamous defection of Igor Gouzenko in 1945, we know that Russia uses the cover of diplomacy to deploy intelligence agents to identify and collect assets in Canada and manipulate Canadian policy. This includes information and influence operations, as well as the incitement of hate towards communities and activists who are critical of the Kremlin’s policies.
An expulsion of diplomats and intelligence agents from Canada would have consequences. Russia would likely expel Canadian diplomats from Moscow as a tit-for-tat response. The impact of this on Canadians would be negligible.
Canada must demand answers from Russia’s ambassador for the savage targeting of children, and declare Russia a state sponsor of terror. We must end the impunity of Russian agents using diplomatic cover to advance Russia’s interests in Canada, engage in information warfare, and incite hate against communities and critics of Putin’s murderous neo-imperialist regime.
As Russian democratic opposition leader and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov told us: “there is no justification for the presence of so many agents of the Putin regime in Canada. Russia is a terror state waging war, from bombing children’s hospitals in Ukraine to acts of sabotage and assassination across the globe. Canada must not live in denial of this truth and must stand against Russia’s terrorist regime by expelling these operatives and by holding Putin to account by designating him and his regime terrorists.”
Canada must act decisively. What is taking so long?
Dr. Stanley Kutcher is an Independent Senator for Nova Scotia.
Marcus Kolga is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and founder of DisinfoWatch.
