In your view, has Putin's army committed any war crime?
In my opinion, the soldiers of the Russian army are doing their job and doing it well. I do not rule out that there may be individual episodes of cases of unjustified cruelty among Russian soldiers in relation to civilians - this is the prerogative of a military tribunal and it is not for me to judge this.
The evidence found are extensive, it would take an army of people just to produce the amount of photographic material, witnesses and declarations. It is simply impossible to hide or deny. The behaviour of the troop in many locations is from criminal to sub-human and that does not happen without orders.
Russian troops redeployed from near Kyiv to Donbass a few days ago, and yesterday photos of bound corpses with fresh wounds appeared. The corpses themselves are not fake, but who did it? I hope you have no problems with critical thinking to independently compare the facts and restore the sequence of events.
Here is a joyful statement by the mayor of Bucha on March 31 about the liberation of the city from "Russian occupiers". Not a word about the corpses on the streets and the atrocities of Russian soldiers, a complete victory. And two days later, those terrible photos appear. Something doesn't add up in this story, don't you think?
And just so you do not feel we do not read your crap, there is also abundant evidence that both the maternity and the theatre attacks did happen, were civilians targets and are war crimes, but that is only but the tip of what is being found.
Both episodes turned out to be fakes.
Now, you can move on to the "excuse & whatabout" department of your controllers to provide more excuses and "whattabouts", but the problem of crimes in an modern country with good comms, good satelite coverage and abundance of means to document facts is that you just cannot lie your way out of it. There will be reports, these will be issued by credible organisations and audited by neutral parties and there will be no way that anyone with access to reasonably independent media will believe Putins parallel reality.
Rather, the problem is that a whole factory of fakes is operating in Ukraine, from the banal issuance of old photographs as fresh events, to high-quality montages like videos of Russian aircraft inflicting airstrikes on Paris and Berlin. The production of informational fakes is put on stream in Ukrainian propaganda, and this is a problem for the Russian side, because in the information war the advantage is gained not by the one who tells the truth, but by the one who has a more inflamed and unlimited imagination.
And make no mistake, there are consequences of having a country ruled by a known war criminal.
So far, I see clear examples of war crimes only from the Ukrainian side, and they manifest themselves in the fact that the Ukrainian military is actively using civilians as hostages. The army must protect its people, not hide behind them! Go out into the field and fight like a soldier, or lay down your weapons and surrender. Even if you die - your opponent will accept it with respect, and will not consider you a coward who hides behind the backs of women and children whom you were supposed to protect. You may consider the Russians wild barbarians, but we have clear ideas of honor that are incompatible with sadism and violence against unarmed people.
Europe does not hate Russia. Europe has tried to bring Russia into the world commerce and partnerships that allow the development of countries and the progress of the people. Under Putin, Russia cannot be part of this world - imperfect yes - but of progress and (reasonable) freedom.
The united Europe takes its current place in the world largely due to the uninterrupted supply of cheap Russian raw materials, oil and gas. The labor of European workers is quite expensive, and Europe needs cheap raw materials and energy in order for European goods to compete in the world market. If supplies from Russia stop, Europe will very soon become bankrupt and will no longer be able to maintain a high standard of living for Europeans. It's as clear as a sunny day, and that's what I meant when I said that Europe needs Russia more than Russia needs Europe.
This war has never been about Nazis. You want to drive the discussion there, but there is simply not a point to hold to. If something is clear in Europe is that Nazis are not welcome in governments.
You are right, the widespread use of Nazism in Ukraine is a excus, not a reason. The security threat to Russia from Ukraine's accession to NATO is no more significant than from Norway's accession to NATO in 1949. There is also the problem of the eight-year genocide of the Russian-speaking population of Donbass, who held a referendum, exercised their right to self-determination and decided to become independent, and then asked Russia for recognition and assistance. Russians do not leave their own in trouble, so now Russian soldiers are fighting side by side with the forces of the people's militia of Donetsk and Lugansk.
But you understand very well that this bulb has many layers and the true causes of this confrontation must be sought not on the surface, but a little deeper. Is fecit, cui prodest. And who is the main beneficiary of the current events in Ukraine and in Europe as a whole? I have an opinion on this, but I will leave this question open for everyone to ask themselves and get their own version of the answer.
Europe should seriously consider its behavior towards Russia, given that Europe depends on Russia, it seems much more than Russia depends on Europe.
You describe a relationship when one dominates someone else, or when someone depends on another, so he is forced to obey. This is how a lot of things are arranged in Russia, where children in kindergartens are put on their knees and lined up in the letter "Z"
1, where teachers in schools are forced to tell propaganda to children
2, and parents should help repair the school
3. When you sit shut up at work, and everyone around admires how well the neighboring country is being destroyed. There are simply a huge number of such examples in Russia, and all this is based on people's fear for their lives and the lives of their family. But you forgot one thing: it is not acceptable in Europe, unlike Russia, human rights are respected there, there is a legal regime, corruption is not a generally accepted phenomenon. Therefore, when Putin's officials talk rudely at the international level or openly lie, Europe does not get worse from this, it only shows that it is simply not pleasant to conduct a civilized dialogue with Russia and it is better to end it. Europe should not grovel before Putin, as they have pride and the right to choose, unlike Russian citizens. In all the anti-Russian policy that is growing now and has been in the last decades, the Russian government is solely to blame, and no one except the Russian government has had such a strong influence on anti-Russian sentiment in the world. I think everyone knows the expression "shoot yourself in the foot." So this expression fits very many actions of Putin's officials for many years.
1.
https://euroradio.fm/ru/ponimaet-li-zapad-chto-pytaetsya-dogovoritsya-s-zombirovannymi2.
https://meduza.io/feature/2022/03/05/osvoboditelnaya-missiya-na-ukraine-eto-neobhodimost3.
https://rg.ru/2013/10/10/reg-szfo/shkola.htmlI'm not suggesting that Europe kowtow to Russia because Russia is stronger. But it is still good for Europe to be aware of its current weakness whenever it opens its mouth to anti-Russian rhetoric. "Shooting yourself in the foot" is a good metaphor for all European economic sanctions against Russia. Another good metaphor for this - нaзлo мaмкe yши oтмopoжy.
