“Genocide” is only an overstatement IMO because the Donbass had the means to defend themselves on some level. It was still a campaign of terror and bombardment, with what could be described as pogroms, massacres, and a whole lot of hate crimes as well as government-instituted discrimination against the ethnic Russians and other minorities in Ukraine.

If what constantly occurs against indigenous peoples in the Anglosphere is considered a genocide, which it should be, then the attacks on ethnic Russian, Roma, Caucasian (from the Caucasus), etc. peoples in Ukraine certainly should fit the bill.

Any white, west-European descended people getting even a tenth of the Donbass and ethnic Russian treatment would be crying “genocide” about it forever. Hell, just look at the Rhodesians or the constant fearmongering (and settlers claiming decolonization is “genocide”) etc.