If I were to tell you....
If I were to tell you that whilst the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the bloody battles between the two opposing armies and indiscriminate bombing of civilians is bad enough, Russian soldiers have been raping, torturing and murdering men, women and children in areas that they have occupied. Not just in Bucha and North of Kyiv, but in Kherson and the Donbas too. What would you think?
But there's more. The population of Mariupol and surrounding areas have been sent to so-called 'Filtration' centres on the direct orders of President Putin, where those who 'pass' are being deported deep into Russia. A figure of 1.3 million people has been estimated including many thousands of children. Those who 'fail' filtration for being Government workers, or the families of Ukrainian soldiers, or having military tattoo's, for instance, are being sent to 'penal colonies' in occupied Donetsk. Some have been released, but maybe three thousand civilian and military prisoners are being held there in terrible conditions, and this is also where many of the two thousand or so Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered at the Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol have been taken. Unless they can be released in prisoner exchanges these men and women may never make it out alive. You have to blink and remind yourself that this is now 2022, not 1945. Russia seems to have changed very during the intervening years.
If some or all of this is news to you, you may be pretty shocked, after all, this is happening on the continent of Europe. Not that we should care any less for the people of Yemen, Afghanistan or Syria by the way. The irony is that Putin claims to be liberating and de-Nazifying the Ukrainian people! Who are the real Nazis here I wonder?
Putin must be stopped and everything militarily, diplomatically and financially possible must be done to enable Ukraine to defeat the Russian invasion. Nothing should be withheld. Ukraine, after all, is fighting to protect all of Europe from Putin. Then there must be a reckoning; the return of all Ukrainian citizens to their Country; reparations to rebuild the ruined buildings and cities; the prosecution of Russian war criminals and the return of all lands seized by the invaders. Any proposed peace treaty that fails to include these things cannot be acceptable. This will also, hopefully, lead to regime change in Russia.
This was the head rather than the heart talking incidentally. A part of me wants to really hurt Russia for all of this, but no good would come from this.
