Quote (Black XistenZ @ Feb 16 2024 08:54pm)
When the Russians were driven away from the Kyiv outskirts, there was plenty of evidence and firsthand testimony about the rape and torture the Russian military committed against the civilian population, e.g. in Irpin.
And while most conquering forces throughout human history came with elevated rates of sexual violence, the Russian military has a notorious reputation as a particularly rapey bunch, a reputation which goes back nearly a century.
Which is also why I always find it so ridiculous how the talking point about the Azov regiment "murdering, raping and torturing the Russian-speaking population of Donbass" is brought up like some kind of gotcha. First, these cases are blown way out of proportion by Russian propaganda. Second, they are perpetrated by a paramilitary group which is only indirectly linked to the Ukrainian military and government while you have the same kinds of war crimes being perpetrated by the official Russian military. Third, because this stuff is no justification for Russia's invasion anyway. If stopping "the terror of the Azov battalion" had been Russia's primary target, they could have brought troops to the Donbass and engaged the Azovites there; Russia didn't need to invade Ukraine from three sides or shell civilian infrastructure all across the country for two years running just to protect the Donbass. :rolleyes:
The commander for the 3rd Special Operations Brigade, leading the retreat from Avdiikva right now, is also the founder of Azov and leader of the country's Nazi political party. He's the guy the NYT is (uncritically) interviewing about the battle. The first thing the leader of the whole army did after getting fired and becoming political opposition to Zelensky, was court the Nazis by posing with them under a big old Bandera portrait. That's after he has posted all sorts of photos of himself with Bandera and Shukhevych busts and portraits, posing with OUN-B leaders, with swastikas and black suns and valknuts. The point is that Nazis aren't a fringe element of the western Ukrainian political sphere and military, they're the leading faction. They top leaders
have to be tight with the Nazi cause, pervasive among the troops and command structure. They're the force behind the Maidan revolution in the first place, in charge of the 8 year siege, leading the front lines against the Russian invasion. They aren't fringe.
Secondly, this is a war in eastern europe. Anyone shocked by the fact that both sides of the conflict are committing war crimes and barbarities, must be completely ignorant of the past
millennia of human history. The Nazis, the Cossacks, the Czars, the Serbs, the Muscovites, when has it ever
not involved mass rape, torture, looting and all the other fun war crimes? Saying an eastern european war is filled with atrocities is like saying the RSF and SAF in Sudan aren't being nice to each other.