R Johansen
Hindustan Times
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Comments by "R Johansen" (@rjohansen9486) on "Explosions Rock Kyiv, Other Ukrainian Cities After Russia Fires Missile u0026 Drones; Zelensky Says…" video.
It had nothing to do with NATO expansion, but everything to do with putin's imperialistic project!
Ever since the early years of his reign, Putin has made no secret of his bitterness over the Soviet collapse, which he has always viewed as a Russian defeat. In 2005, when he famously referred to the disintegration of the USSR as “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” he stressed that it was a tragedy for “the Russian people” and the millions of Russians who suddenly found themselves living beyond Russia’s borders in newly independent countries such as Ukraine.
Putin went even further in 2021, lamenting the fall of the USSR as “the collapse of historical Russia under the name of the Soviet Union.” In other words, he regards the entire Soviet era as a continuation of the Czarist Russian Empire, and sees the settlement of 1991 as anything but final. Putin’s sense of historical injustice has led to an unhealthy obsession with Ukraine, which he insists is an inherent part of historical Russia that has been subjected to artificial separation. He is fond of claiming that Ukrainians are in fact Russians (“one people”), and took the unusual but revealing step in July 2021 of publishing a lengthy essay arguing against the legitimacy of Ukrainian statehood.
This fixation has been further fueled by fears that the emergence of a democratic Ukraine could serve as a catalyst for similar changes inside Russia itself. Putin remains haunted by the pro-democracy uprisings that swept Central Europe in the late 1980s while he was a young KGB officer in East Germany, and views modern Ukraine’s embrace of democracy as a direct threat to his own authoritarian regime.
It is no coincidence that in the buildup to last year’s invasion, Putin began referring to Ukraine as an intolerable “anti-Russia.” Over the past 13 months of full-scale war, Putin’s imperial objectives in Ukraine have become increasingly evident. He has compared his invasion to the eighteenth century imperial conquests of Russian Czar Peter the Great, and has repeatedly spoken of returning historical Russian lands while attempting to annex four partially occupied Ukrainian regions representing almost 20% of the war-torn country. Meanwhile, his army has imposed brutal policies of russification throughout occupied Ukraine, complete with summary executions, forced deportations, the suppression of Ukrainian national symbols, and widespread use of torture against anyone deemed a potential opponent of Russian rule.
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The Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Adedeji Ebo, May 2023: “After almost 15 months of the Russian Federation’s military offensive into Ukraine, suffering, loss, displacement and destruction continue to form part of an unbearable routine”, said Mr. Ebo.
“In addition to the thousands of civilians killed and injured, the destruction of essential critical infrastructure and services is particularly alarming. In the beginning 4 months of the war,
The Russians destroyed over 300 bridges in Ukraine. Homes, schools, roads, and bridges have been destroyed and damaged”, he continued. “Attacks on energy infrastructure have interrupted power, heating, drinking water supply and sewage facilities, as well as mobile and internet communications. Hospitals and health facilities have been attacked, killing and injuring healthcare workers and disrupting essential services. Explosive remnants of war have resulted in widespread land contamination rendering land unusable for agriculture, while impeding the movement of people.”
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- During the first 4 weeks of the war: Between February 24 and March 21, 2022, sixty-four medical facilities and their personnel were targeted by Russian forces in Ukraine, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.
The facilities were being hit at rate of two to three a day, inflicting 15 deaths and 37 injuries.
- During the first year: More than 700 attacks on hospitals, health workers, and other medical infrastructure in Ukraine have been reported in the year since the Russian invasion began, according to an investigation by human rights groups. A report—Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Health Care System—found there were an average of two attacks every day between 24 February and 31 December 2022. These included hospitals being bombed, medics being tortured, and ambulances being shot at. Over that period, there were 292 attacks that damaged or destroyed 218 hospitals and clinics, 181 attacks on other health infrastructure (such as pharmacies, blood centres, and dental clinics), and 65 attacks on ambulances. There were also 86 attacks on healthcare workers, with 62 killed and 52 injured. “Healthcare workers, who became witnesses, talk about the horrific crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine,” said Lyubov Smachylo, analyst for the Media Initiative for Human Rights. “Some were held hostage by the Russian military, others were under fire, and some were forced to work under occupation.
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No, but putin is using them as targets!
Alj@zeera: Putin targets Ukrainian civilians because he could in Syria. The Syrianisation of the Ukraine war is no coincidence. Russia got away with it once — and believes it will again. In 2015, when Russia began its military intervention in Syria, it seemed that the barbarism in the region was too significant for the international community to turn away from. Abundant reports by United Nations commissions, as well as accountability, human rights, and humanitarian organisations, documented war crimes with pictures, videos, and firsthand testimony.
The world has watched countless incidents of missiles destroying hospitals or mutilated Syrian children covered in dust and blood being pulled from the rubble of destroyed apartment buildings. By some accounts, the documentation of war crimes in Syria is the strongest evidence since the crimes of the Nazis in World War II. And yet, the international community failed to act. No one was held accountable. Syria was a test case for the resolve of the world on how to respond to a brutal aggressor that justifies attacking civilians and hospitals. Inaction in Syria gave Putin the green light to start another brutal war to swallow another big chunk of territory from his neighbor, Ukraine.
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@Barin-hn1bf "From Nazis and Nato, standing at Russia's gate". The nazi's are inside, not outside the russian border!
A statement signed by more than 300 historians who study genocide, Nazism and World War II said Putin’s rhetoric about de-Nazifying fascists among Ukraine’s elected leadership is “propaganda.”
“We strongly reject the Russian government’s cynical abuse of the term genocide, the memory of World War II and the Holocaust, and the equation of the Ukrainian state with the Nazi regime to justify its unprovoked aggression,” the statement says. “This rhetoric is factually wrong, morally repugnant and deeply offensive to the memory of millions of victims of Nazism and those who courageously fought against it, including Russian and Ukrainian soldiers of the Red Army.
“Neo-Nazi, far right and xenophobic groups do exist in Ukraine, like in pretty much any other country, including Russia,” Finkel said. “They are vocal and can be prone to violence but they are numerically small, marginal and their political influence at the state level is non-existent. That is not to say that Ukraine doesn’t have a far-right problem. It does. But I would consider neo-Nazi groups IN RUSSIA A MUCH BIGGER problem and threat than the Ukrainian far right.”
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