Russia announced Tuesday it will significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war came into view at the latest round of talks.
Anybody who takes Russian leaders at their word has rocks in their head. Like this guy.
Second, this:
Accounts of rape and sexual violence began to emerge almost immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine, according to Kateryna Busol, an associate with Chatham House and a Ukrainian lawyer who documented allegations of sexual violence following Russia’s seizure and annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“These accounts are growing, and we are hearing that they are much more widespread than the one account raised by the inspector general,” Ms. Busol said in a phone interview from Regensburg, Germany, where she fled from Kyiv in the days following the invasion.
“What we are hearing by word of mouth, from acquaintances of survivors in the country, is horrific,” she added. “I have had described to me incidents of gang rape, rape in front of children and sexual violence following the killing of family members.”
Wartime rape: It's what Russian soldiers do. Terrorizing civilian populations by murdering men and raping wiomen is an age-old Russian policy.
...but please, please, call it special operations...
ReplyDeleteThe Germans have done a reasonable job of dealing with Nazi guilt and war crimes (IIRC, they are perhaps the only nation that has ever done so). I doubt Russia will have the grit and guts to do so....and thus will spend even more time in the darkness internally and as a pariah externally. And as it implodes (already happening), its satellite satraps will break way (already happening) and its neighbors will start looking to nibble on its edges...
Not to defend the Ruskies but ... it has ever been thus: a weapon of War.
ReplyDeleteI know this to be true: we are not innocent ...
As much as the U.S. did evil things in Afghanistan and Iraq, there were never any credible allegations of widespread rape and sexual violence. Plenty of violence against men who were seen as "the enemy", and no end of violence against their own female team-mates, but the local women were mostly off limits.
ReplyDeleteBut then, the United States has a professional military. It's not a bunch of barely trained 1 year draftees led by inexperienced butterbars who have no idea how to maintain discipline amongst their troops. So.