>>509392718>Weren't they basically Russian occupied since 2014?No, just Crimea. Donetsk and Lugansk declared independence in 2014 and had been fighting a civil war from then until 2022 when they were formally incorporated into Russia. That was the Donbass War.
"Genocide" is a bit of a stretch but the Ukrainians, the nationalist paramilitaries and their government sponsors at the very least, did engage in violent ethnic cleansing and were never shy about it, it was widely reported in in anglo media at least.