The list of atrocities resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine seems to be far from over. The discovery of a makeshift cemetery with hundreds of Ukrainian civilians with signs of execution is the latest and darkest revelation of the brutality of the invasion, which Moscow calls a “special operation” or “denazification”, as many people, shamelessly, still insists on repeating.
No war is beautiful. But some can be more creepy and dirty than others. And what Vladimir Putin started in Ukraine has already proved illegal and inhumane to the point of putting the invasion on the waiting list of those that will be considered fraught with crimes against humanity.
The Ukrainian reaction, which has allowed the recovery of significant portions of its territory, will allow the world to face the horror produced by Putin’s troops. More than the rubble of houses, schools and hospitals. There will be no shortage of those who say who is war propaganda. After all, battles aren’t just fought with gunfire and shelling.
Graves discovered in a pine forest on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Izyum revealed that among the victims were women and children. Next to the individual graves was a mass grave dedicated to the Ukrainian military, who were treated even more undignified.
Even wars have rules. But for Putin’s Russia, the rules are a detail. Putin’s Russia violates them in Ukraine. Putin’s Russia violated them in Syria. Putin’s Russia violated them in Chechnya. But Putin was never charged for it.
Some of the most brutal events of the civil war fought in Syria had the direct participation of Russia. To help his ally, the dictator Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin committed the Russian armed forces to carry out bombings that, in addition to razing entire cities, left a toll of at least 200 civilian deaths in just three cities out of several that were attacked by Putin’s troops.
The civil war in Syria, which is still active and has completed eleven years, has a balance of more than 306,000 civilian deaths – about 10% are children. There are several independent reports that describe Assad’s atrocities under Putin’s patronage and patronage. But perhaps nothing is more suffocatingly didactic than the documentary. The Cavewhich tells the story of doctors in an underground hospital amid the rubble of Russian bombings in Syria.
The documentary ends with the evacuation of the hospital, which would later become the target of a Russian disinformation campaign. As Putin disliked the destruction of the hospital, he packaged a version that it was a den of the Islamic State terrorist group. A kind of terrorist’s infirmary, to justify its destruction. Putin and his regime are, by the way, a machine for building versions and lies with the aim of disinforming and generating confusion. The documentary, which was even a finalist for the Oscars, broke the Kremlin’s fake legs, but that didn’t mean anyone charged Putin.
In fact, if Putin’s crimes had been charged and punished in the Syrian war, Ukraine might not even have been invaded. Tolerance for war criminals fuels new war crimes.
Putin is so comfortable with his crimes that he cast the general Alexander Zhuravlyovthe same military leader who autographs some of the brutal chapters of the war in Syria, to repeat the recipe for horror in the Ukrainian theater.
If Putin had paid for what he did against the chechensperhaps the history of the civil war in Syria would be the same.
The last European butcher to be arrested, tried and convicted was former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević, who promoted what the International Criminal Court understood to be genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Under his orders, Serbian troops and militias carried out an attack targeting the population of Albanian origin living in Kosovo. Milošević’s extermination policy resulted in the death of approximately 13,000 people, 11,000 of whom were Albanians.
Milošević could only be accused, arrested and sentenced after he had stepped down from power. Putin remains firm in his regime, despite rumors of a coup, assassination attempts and the blatant discontent of the local elite who suffer, in their pockets, the cost of Putin’s armed war.
Only the future will let us know the fate of the Russian leader. But it is impossible to think that history will not treat him prominently within the chapter that brings together leaders who carry in their legacy the infamy of war crimes and genocide.
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