Questions
Unspeakable crimes against humanity. Western corporate MSM, think tank experts and elites have totally ignored the atrocities and human rights abuses that have taking place since 2014. Yet, several international organisations and NGO's have in the past, reported on a long list of crimes committed by those who happen to also glorify and revere WWII UPA - OUN death squads, who themselves carried out numerous heinous massacres of civilians.
As the saying goes don't judge a book by its cover. Yet this is what the West corporate MSM would like you to do, instead of reading the table of contents or even the chapters inside. A book about Post-Maidan Ukraine, the radicalisation of society, about a vicious war being waged without rules.
Questions avidly avoided
Washington, Brussels, London, Paris and others are well aware of a long list of human rights abuses and atrocities committed by Ukrainian officials, military and paramilitary personnel since 2014. Civilians summarily shot, systematic tortures and beatings, branding with swastikas, knife and burn wounds, broken bones, head trauma and electrocutions.
All of which now totally swept under the carpet. You would be a fool to not notice the heap by this stage. The Western MSM and think tanks regularly step aside this sordid heap in their eternal quest to demonise every aspect of Russia and Russian speakers.
Now taboo, even the likes of Newsweek were once able to point out some of the horrors inflicted on people in Ukraine largely at the hands of rabid ultra nationalists. As recently as 2020, the U.S. State Department listed a long catalogue of deeply troubling abuses taking place in their cherished protectorate. Of course, they got given a free pass on all vile activities. The list is long:
Significant human rights issues included: unlawful or arbitrary killing; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees by law enforcement personnel; harsh and life-threatening conditions in prisons and detention centers; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; abuses in the Russia-led conflict in the Donbas, including physical abuse of civilians and members of armed groups held in detention facilities; serious restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet, including violence, threats of violence, or unjustified arrests or prosecutions against journalists, censorship, and blocking of websites; refoulement of refugees; serious acts of corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for violence against women; violence or threats of violence motivated by anti- Semitism; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting persons with disabilities, members of ethnic minority groups, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex persons; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor.
Part 2
The government generally failed to take adequate steps to prosecute or punish most officials who committed abuses, resulting in a climate of impunity. Human rights groups and the United Nations noted significant deficiencies in investigations into alleged human rights abuses committed by government security forces.
Now with the Russian military intervention[*], all of the total impunity, all of the abuses, all of the "unlawful or arbitrary killing; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees by law enforcement personnel; harsh and life-threatening conditions in prisons and detention centers; arbitrary arrest or detention;" has simply vanished. Now it is the Russian military who is the designated "bad guy" TM.
The litany of horrors continues.
Another angle is presented:"The HRMMU raises awareness of national stakeholders, parties to the conflict and the international community about the human rights situation in Ukraine." So far, they have "documented over 600 cases of torture and ill-treatment of conflict-related detainees" by 2022. That's just scratching the surface of a very deeply troubling situation in Ukraine, that has been taking place since 2014. The OHCHR produced a report covering the period 2014-2021 on the widespread human right abuses in Ukraine.
The absolutely horrendous increase in human rights abuses, atrocities and severe humanitarian crisis that has unfolded since 24th of February, is really a catalyst in which government approved Ukrainian ultra-nationalists groups, as the U.S. State Dept described it, operated in a "climate of impunity". Now the Western corporate MSM and think tanks have whitewashed their crimes and we are asked to take every word from Kiev, with the upmost gravity and sincerity.
President Zelensky added a twist to this narrative, when asked about the shooting and torture of prisoners by Azov, on Fox News. His answer were remarkably telling in its brevity and : “They are what they are.”
Torture, ill-treatment of prisoners, arbitrary killings and atrocities are synonymous with Ukrainian ultra-nationalists. It has been the case since Maidan in 2014 and was at the most intense during the 2014-2016 phase of the Donbass conflict. What is taking place now is a mirror of the ghastly events that took place between 2014-2016, but in a intensified manner.
Nothing unusual about the cruelty shown by Ukrainian nationalists, carefully cultivated and natured. Endorsed cruelty, in the same vein as the Syrian "moderate rebels", ISIS, KLA, Bosnian jihadists and the Contras. Another leaf taken straight out of the standard CIA 'psywar' operations and tactics:
- to terrorise swathes of the population even those with the slightest support for Russia;
- to pitilessly demonstrate a grotesque level of inhumanity;
There is a disproportionate number of videos available through open sources depicting gratuitous acts of torture, gruesome killings of civilians and Russian prisoners. All of which uploaded by Ukrainian nationalists themselves, in what can only be described as a kind of intensely proud but vile acknowledgment of cruel acts. Every day, there is another batch of horrific images of torture and killings carried out by ultra nationalists.
A sample of cruelty
Russian prisoners shot in the backs, while lying face down on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs. (Video)
Russian prisoner tortured, eye gouged out and killed. (Photo)
Russian prisoners shot in the legs, beaten, left to bleed out for a while. An Ukrainian journalist went to the scene afterwards and found the charred remains of 3 people. (Videos)
Russian pilot made prisoner threatened with castration. (Video)
Russian prisoners ordered to be castrated. (Interview on TV).
Russian prisoners with fingers missing, apparently cut off. (Photos)
Video of the body of a woman killed by "Azov" with a swastika burned on her stomach found in the basement of one of the Mariupol schools.
Video of a woman stripped naked, humiliated and her hair set on fire.
Cold brutal execution of a prisoner with his hands tied behind his back with the cries of "Glory to Ukraine".
The narrative: Good against evil
There are those who are working overdrive to justify these acts because the narrative they are pushing is that the Ukrainians are the good guys, the democratic country fighting an hostile invader, against a country that is evil and authoritarian. It runs counter to this mindset, that the Ukrainian commit war crimes. Yet, Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelensky, argued that “international humanitarian laws or the laws of war don’t apply in this conflict".
The resemblance with ISIS cannot be overlooked, especially given what Arestovich said about ISIS in an interview, (video still above). The extremely gruesome and gratuitous use of violence and torture to repress civilians has been a long standing practice in post-204 Ukraine. Paradoxically, a Ukrainian high-level military social psychologist, Oleh Pokalchuk, stated in 2017, that in his opinion that "adherents of the 'Russian world' were no different to Islamic terrorists. He later said that a Moskal (derogatory word for Russian), had "very little human likeness there." Delusion and projection of a a crude viewpoint of Russia and communism, lumped under the term ' katsap'. They have utter vile contempt for anything Russian.
The Bucha 'massacre"
The corporate MSM along Ukrainian authorities has published images and videos with dozens of corpses on the streets, accusing the Russian army of killing civilians. And here is the mayor of Bucha Anatoly Fedoruk reporting about a "complete Buch liberation" on the 31st March, as reported in the Ukrainian press on the 1st April.
Ukrainian press 01 April
Discrepancies in the massacre is circulated on social media, with the allegations of a staged massacre being made, an event that took place several days after the Mayor of Bucha was on video saying it has been liberated, which the timing of the revelations itself doesn't make sense. This was also stated in the Kyiv Independent on the 1st of April:
“March 31 will go down in the history of our town,” said Mayor Anatolii Fedoruk. He thanked Ukraine’s Armed Forces for liberating the city from Russian troops. The city was occupied by Russia since Feb. 27.
All Russian forces had departed Kyiv Oblast by the 2nd of April, as reported on pro-Ukrainian OSINT social media sites.
Nearly all of the photos imply a massacre of civilians, which according to some deliberately do not tell the whole story. Most corpses are turned on their stomach or their faces are covered with hoods. Others are only half clothed, at a time when the weather is cold and wet. In one instance, a clean white cloth is just tied on one wrist with dirty hands. Another victim is on the ground face down with a nearby bottle of beer. Another body by the side of road reportedly moved his arm in a TV report.
This coming from Ukrainian nationalists who have no compunction in killing their own for being Russian collaborators, saboteurs or spies, (as was the case of Denis Kireev, a high ranking government official). This coming from people who carried out a state sanctioned act of terror against pro-Russian Ukrainians in 2014, notably, killing of 48+ civilians in Odessa, many burnt alive, strangled or beaten to death. No action taken against the perpetrators. Basically baying for the blood of 'Moskals', 'Katsaps', 'Colorado beetles', endorsed and encouraged at the highest levels since 2014. In essence, people who have absolutely no qualms about killing 'traitors' and presenting as having been massacred by the Russians.
Ukraine certainly will have been carrying sweeps in towns and villages where the Russian army had been since 24th February to hunt down spies, officials and locals who collaborated or perceived to have collaborated with the Russian army. As categorically stated in Ukrainian on the 2nd April:
Special forces have begun a clearing operation in the city of Bucha in the Kyiv region, which has been liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The city is being cleared from saboteurs and accomplices of Russian forces.
LB.ua
Guess who was among the troops in Bucha, "Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov battalion walked through the remnants of a Russian military convoy in the recently liberated town of Bucha." New York Times, 2nd April 2022
Knowing the vindictiveness and arbitrary cruelty of ultranationalists, the ruthlessness of the SBU, there will be retributions, summary executions of anyone deemed as spies and collaborators. It is worthy to note that many bodies had a clean white cloth tied to their arms or wrists. White is used by the Russian forces and it is likely that this may be a way for Ukrainians to identify and take action against collaborators. As mentioned earlier, killings can be then framed as being Russian.
The use of a massacre, where elements have been reported as being staged, that became a defining point in a conflict and lead to Western intervention:
Kosovo - Račak massacre
Bosnia - Srebrenica massacre
Libya - Viagra and mass rapes
Syria - Douma - chemical weapons.
Just one video footage was produced in Douma, in Syria of an attack where the injured were crisis actors. This was a sufficient excuse to subsequently launch just over a hundred missiles by the USA, UK and France.
All of the events prompted a Western intervention or the intensification of a military campaign. The adage of the West is that if a country commits a genocide they are responsible for everything that happens to the country in the process. The alleged decision of committing a genocide alone enables NATO or the U.S. to forfeit sovereignty and subsequently get heavily bombed. Thus, these events were important elements of an intense information operation being waged as part of the conflict.
As we are currently seeing in Ukraine, Western MSM is declaring who is responsible for atrocities before any forensic investigation has even been done. Up to now, the same MSM and experts were highly skeptical and demanded more proof regarding the shooting and torture videos of Russian POWs.
Right on cue, an event that will trigger another wave of Western MSM-driven outrage, ( it has started). An incident that crystallises the "Good v evil" narrative further. The same format is now being applied and it is called 'Bucha'.
Ukraine, the head of the Kiev military administration, Nikolay Zhirnov: We are continuing to identify and eliminate groups of collaborators with Russian intelligence services in Kiev and in the region. " 05 April 2022.
The extreme brutality of Kiev has gone unnoticed for 8 years and this largely continues, despite a surge in heinous crimes filmed and photographed. While at the same time, certain events designated as "war crimes" are specifically cherry picked to suit the narrative being driven, to crudely shape Western public opinion into hating Russia even more, and to gather more foreign support.
Links
Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604
Side-note: Also in Bucha were U.S. war tourists, notably ex military, who uploaded videos of their 'success' several days ago.
* To use U.S. and NATO parlance for invasion.