Head of the Ukraine Team Office of the Prosecutor International Criminal Court (ICC) Brenda J. Hollis has said that the elements that define the crime of Russia's genocide against Ukrainians are not enough to prove that Russia committed it.

Crimes are like dishes, she said, if you have certain ingredients, you have a certain dish. If you lack some ingredients, you will have a different dish. The same applies to genocide. Crimes against humanity also have their own recipes. There must be six specific components of this crime to prove it. One of them is the deportation of children, she said during a workshop for the media on the international law of armed conflicts and holding Russia accountable for international crimes on Saturday, June 8.

Another component of the crime of genocide is the imposition of a certain way of life with the aim of destroying an ethnic group, Hollis said.

In order for it to be genocide, all these acts must be directed against a specific group based on nationality, race, certain characteristics of a certain group, she said.

The head of the ICC Team emphasized that when qualifying genocide, the intention to destroy a specific group must also be proven, criminal actions must be explained by the fact that a person is destroyed because of belonging to a specific ethnic group.

That is, all these ingredients must be present for it to be genocide, and if one of the ingredients is missing, then it will not be genocide, it will be deportation, destruction, but not genocide, she explained, answering a question about whether the deportation of Ukrainian children as a component of genocide determines this crime against Ukrainians.