The Armed Forces of Ukraine completely liberated the north of the Kyiv region from Russian invaders who held these lands under occupation for more than a month. The authorities of the suburbs of Kyiv and villages and towns of the northern Kyiv region liberated from Russian troops report hundreds of civilians killed by the occupiers, and the bodies of executed people are lying around the streets. Often their hands are tied behind their backs, in some settlements the dead were thrown into mass graves, where hundreds of bodies were found. There were also bodies of raped women found. How Ukraine, together with its partners, should punish the Russian fascists for genocide, whether Kyiv can wait for more serious support from the West - read in the Apostrophe's material.
Not Srebrenica or Vukovar
The situation in Bucha, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Chernihiv, and other Ukrainian cities proves that the goal of the Russians is to destroy Ukrainians regardless of how they feel about the "great Russian culture" and what language they speak. They hate Ukrainian for existing. This is not an ordinary war that can be measured by military criteria. Every Ukrainian city, every Ukrainian village can become Kharkiv, Mariupol, or Bucha.
Eyewitness testimony depicts the scale of the lawlessness of the occupiers. With this, a 14-year-old resident of Bucha Yurii, said that he was riding a bicycle with his father when he met a Russian military man. "We stopped, raised our hands, said we didn't have weapons. But the soldier shot the father. He fell. Then the military man started shooting at me, two bullets hit my hand. I fell to the ground. The soldier shot again, in the hood, but the bullet didn't hurt the head," says the boy. The child lay on the ground for a few minutes, and when the Russian soldiers left, he ran to the nearest orphanage, where he was provided with first aid. The father was killed, he was 47 years old.
Another resident of Bucha said that two Russian soldiers, Chechen and Belarusian nationals, staged a sentencing point in her apartment. Her husband was tortured and beaten for 4 days. Eyewitnesses also say that the Russians kidnapped the men from the Buchan Territorial Defense and shot everyone with their faces to the ground and tied hands.
The Russian Nazis shot almost all the guards of a local company, broke into the basements of the locals, where the latter hid, and mocked them. Corpses are still lying on the streets of Bucha. The representatives of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine have not yet had time to remove them, as they are engaged in a similar ‘kind of work’ in Irpin.
At the same time, the streets in Irpin are full of dead bodies. Evidence of atrocities of Russian soldiers, in particular the Kadyrov squad, comes as well from other towns of the Kyiv region - Makariv, Hostomel, villages of Brovary district, Motyzhin, etc.
Now the atrocities of the occupiers have begun to be equated with genocide in Srebrenica. The parallels are between what happened during the war in the Balkans at the end of the last century, and what is happening in Ukraine now. However, since we have different kinds of wars, it is incorrect to identify the experience of the former Yugoslavia and call Bucha "new Srebrenica", says Maria Kucherenko, an analyst of the "Come Back Alive" fund.
"We do not have an intra-Ukrainian interethnic or interfaith conflict. In addition, in the Balkans, there was a collapse of an authoritarian state, several components of which fought among themselves for power. That is, in our case we are talking about the aggression of a nuclear state against a country with long-recognized borders - with Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk," the expert says.
She believes that the figures for civilian casualties in Ukraine may exceed the number of victims in the former Yugoslavia because according to representatives of the Ministry of Defense, there are more people who died in Bucha alone than were the Croats who were killed by Serbs in Vukovar. And in addition to Bucha, nearby there are also Irpin, Vorzel, and Borodyanka.
Meanwhile, you can only guess how many victims there are in Mariupol and other cities of Eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia. It will be difficult to determine how many people died in Donetsk in 8 years because the more time passes, the more difficult it is to find and identify the remains of bodies, says Kucherenko.
According to the expert, the atrocities of Russians in the Kyiv region are our significant argument for the civilized world not only in negotiations regarding the supply of weaponry or closing the sky but also in terms of an honest, frank, and tough dialogue with the world about what lessons they learned from Srebrenica and Vukovar. However, it seems that they did not learn any. At the end of the Bosnian war, the sky over Bosnia was closed, but the Ukrainian sky is still not, and it is unlikely to happen soon.
"In our dialogue with the Western Balkans, we must appeal to the fact that we do not compare wars and do not measure ourselves by suffering. Instead, we must highlight that here, just like it was there, civil people are murdered, and the world has not learned any lessons from it. By the way, Balkans were also affected by the Russian aggression: let's recall the drone in Croatia, the coup attempt in Montenegro, where there are Russian agents actively working now. These countries are already in NATO and they should be our largest partners in advocating the provision of weapons to Ukraine. Because if you do not stop Russia here - the Balkans will be the next. It is a fact and we have already heard the open threats of the Russian ambassador to Bosnia Ivan Kalabukhov, which were not just rhetorical exercises. Here you need to remember the words of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps: believe those who say they want to kill you - they are not joking," Kucherenko notes.
According to political scientist Oleksii Golobutsky, what we saw in Bucha is a turning point in the war.
"I do not believe that massacres and looting in the Kyiv region were unorganized, because after all, there is a hierarchy in Rosarmy [“Apostrophe” - Russian Army], and if looters could steal mobile phones and money without the approval of commanders, the Rashists definitely could not pull the equipment, furniture, and carpets without permission from the above. There was also an order to kill civilians - after all, dozens of dead can still be explained, but the number has already risen to hundreds of people who, for example, have their hands tied. It could not be a one-time action due to the fear of the occupiers," says the expert.
At the same time, political expert Viktor Nebozhenko reminds us that for more than 20 years Putin's propaganda has spent huge amounts of money on bribing the media and politicians in Europe, and now it is difficult to force these people to change their point of view regarding Russia. But crime is a crime, and it is necessary to make sure that it is punished.
New Nuremberg?
According to Maria Kucherenko, it is necessary to initiate a separate tribunal for the Russian-Ukrainian war. We are already seeing that the number of crimes deserves the creation of a separate body. British officials have already talked about this. In particular, former Prime Minister John Major noted that Russia in the UN Security Council will significantly complicate all the processes related to the investigation and punishment of Russia's crimes. Noteworthy, Russia has already announced the convening of the UN Security Council due to a "provocation" in Bucha, trying to somehow twist the situation in its favor.
Oleksii Golobutsky draws attention to the fact that a moral question arises for Europeans, who constantly talk about values, remembering World War II and its crimes.
People's Deputy, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Olexander Merezhko believes that what the Russians have done in the suburbs of Kyiv is a purposeful policy of genocide.
"I am an international lawyer and believe that these are not only war crimes, violations of the Geneva Convention, and crimes against humanity, it is a purposeful genocidal policy of Russia. Of course, the West must react sharply and quickly," says Merezhko.
According to him, there are several options for implementing punishment for Russian crimes. Yes, there is a model according to which this will be handled by the International Criminal Court in accordance with the Rome Statute since it has jurisdiction over 4 types of crimes: military, crimes of aggression, genocide, and crimes against humanity. Yet, there is another model, which is a creation of a separate special body, such as the Tribunal which investigated crimes during the war in the former Yugoslavia.
"I am inclined to the new Nuremberg, I offered to do it in the same building where the tribunal met after World War II - it would be symbolic. But there are political issues. It is much more difficult to create a new ad hoc tribunal from scratch than to take advantage of the existing International Criminal Court. He has already launched an investigation and is conducting it, but this court has jurisdiction only over individuals, and we must talk, like in Nuremberg, about the responsibility of the state as a whole and its organizations and parties. That is, from the point of view of the subjects of responsibility we must talk about the responsibility of the parties, the Federal Security Bureau, and other involved organizations - to approach the accusation more broadly "- said the People's Deputy to “Apostrophe ", noting that the world should not get used to this war, while many politicians began to gradually "forget" about it.
Embargo and weapons
Now it is very important to raise the issue of complete isolation of Russia and the provision of weapons to Ukraine because sanctions alone are not enough/ Therefore, the main blow to Moscow should be the energy embargo, which will deprive Russia of almost half of its income.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba already appealed to the G7 countries, requesting to impose tough sanctions against the Russian Federation, in particular an embargo on Russian oil and gas and disconnection of all Russian banks from SWIFT, while President Volodymyr Zelensky reasonably asked Western politicians what else must happen for them to finally make the decisions we need – should it be a nuclear (chemical, biological) attack that NATO is so afraid of?
European politicians have begun to respond to the evidence of horrific crimes of Russia, but so far it does not look too convincing.
With this, EU President Charles Michel launched the hashtag #Bucha Massacre. He announced new sanctions against the Russian Federation, and also promised support from the European Union in the investigation of war crimes committed by the occupier's army in the Kyiv region. He wrote about it on Twitter.
"Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by the Russian army in Kyiv liberated region #BuchaMassacre. EU is assisting #Ukraine & NGOs in gathering necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts. Further EU sanctions & support are on their way. Слава Україні!" he wrote.
However, it does not seem that European politicians are capable of isolating Russia, supplying lethal weaponry to Ukraine, and imposing an embargo on Russian hydrocarbons. There are just a few vivid statements.
Thus, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner spoke out against the embargo within the framework of the EU sanctions policy against Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. When asked by journalists why Germany continues to finance Putin's warfighter's campaign in Ukraine through imports of gas and oil, the minister replied: "All options are on the table. Sanctions are already unprecedented. But they must hit Putin's regime and not jeopardize Germany's stability." The Minister said that "the war in Ukraine makes us all poorer, for example, because we have to pay more for imported energy."
Here, probably, it is worth recalling: Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnik said that after Russia attacked Ukraine, Lindner told him in Berlin that Ukraine had "only a few hours", so he opposed the supply of weapons to Kyiv and the disconnection of the Russian Federation from SWIFT.
Equally cynical was the Minister of Economy and Vice-Chancellor of Germany Robert Habeck, who said that his country cannot provide the great assistance that Ukraine asks for - obviously, we are talking about the refusal to supply Ukraine with 100 Infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) «Marder».
According to Habeck, the support of Ukraine in the fight against Russia can be dangerous. He said this in an interview with the Rheinische Post.
"In everything we do, we are very careful. In order not to take rash steps that can make Germany a target for Russia," he said. The Vice-Chancellor stressed that there is no impeccable position in politics towards morality. However, all steps are derived from considerations of preventing the "big evil."
The statements of the Minister of Economy of Slovakia Richard Sulik, ready to agree with the demand of the Russian Federation to pay for gas in rubles, as "fuel supply should not be stopped" were not surprising either.
"Gas supply cannot be stopped. That's why I say, although this may be too pragmatic for some. If there is a condition to pay (for gas from the Russian Federation) in rubles, then we pay in rubles," the minister said.
He said that imports from the Russian Federation account for 85% of all gas purchases in Slovakia. According to the minister, Bratislava supports the diversification of supplies, but it will take several years.
According to Oleksii Golobutsky, the hydrocarbon embargo should be a socio-political decision, that is, the people of Western countries should accept the fact that they will live worse for at least several years.
"Power in the West depends on voters - for example, Orban focuses on the well-being of voters. I think some populists are already ready for the right decisions, and some are not yet, and Bucha will push them to make the right decision. After all, if they do not want to repeat what happened in Ukraine to happen in their homes, they need to make great sacrifices, and this is already such an abstraction for them as a closed sky," the expert believes.
Viktor Nebozhenko disagrees with him, expressing skepticism about the embargo on Russian oil and gas.
"I don't think the energy embargo will be imposed by the EU. Not because they are afraid of Russia. We must face it: they don't consider Ukraine a part of Europe. If Europe agrees that Russia has committed terrible crimes in the suburbs of Kyiv, the next step is the international tribunal to investigate Russian aggression in Ukraine, which should be held somewhere in Europe. Europe must organize it and be responsible for it, and Europe does not want it, because this is another form of dependence on terrible events in Ukraine," says the expert.
In his opinion, Rospropaganda [“Apostrophe” – Russian propagands] will promptly create "genocide" messages from the occupied territories - they will say that Ukrainian "Nazis" are rampant, and Europe will say that crimes and cruelty are committed on both sides. Nebozhenko adds that now it is difficult to fight against Russian propaganda in Europe - there are not so many pro-Ukrainian politicians and journalists who would convey our point of view.
Alexander Merezhko still hopes that Europe will give us appropriate modern weapons to protect ourselves - anti-missile, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank weaponry because Western countries will be morally responsible for what is happening if they do not provide appropriate assistance or simply observe.
But it is hardly necessary to talk about humanism when Slovakia is ready to pay for Russian gas in rubles, about human rights, when the German Minister of Defense refused to provide us with unnecessary IFVs, or about European values when Macron does not want to provoke Putin with harsh statements.
The only responding countries are Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which plan to completely close the borders with the Russian Federation and Belarus within 48-72 hours.
Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki convenes an emergency EU summit to discuss the complete rupture of trade relations with the Russian Federation and Belarus as a reaction to the atrocities of the Russian military. But will it give a result?
It seems that it is the people for whom European values are only a good metaphor, who gets to decide whether or not to take into their union a country that sacrifices thousands of lives for these values.
Think about it: abandoning Russian energy will cost Europe about 3% of its GDP. Absolutely not deadly, to put it mildly. The EU could make such a sacrifice so that the nearby hospitals are not bombed and the civilians there are not killed in cold blood.
