As the war crimes (and in my opinion genocide) pile up so do the questions: How much more can the Ukrainian people endure ? Is it rational to think Putin himself will ever be convicted ? Can Putin be stopped without NATO forces on the ground ? What's next ? And yes, do expect more of the same and worse from Putin.
Going to put up the President Zelensky address to the UN Security council (about 18 minutes duration) and a few links.
..........
~ From Informed Comment (Do not miss these reports !)
(Video on link)
Yes, Bucha Is A War Crime: Putin Told Us who He Was In East Aleppo
"Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Russian withdrawal from the small town of Bucha near the capital of Kyiv left behind a raft of murdered civilians in the streets and bombed buildings the way an ebbing tide leaves behind flotsam and driftwood after a violent tsunami.
The Russian government is attempting to escape blame for these atrocities by simply denying that they are the work of Russian troops, as though the Ukrainians shot themselves, repeatedly and in large numbers. Government spokesmen claim that the videos are deep fakes. It is an old war lie, rooted in a hope that the fog of war and your side’s blind nationalism will serve to perfume the stench of rotting corpses.
The NYT showed that satellite images demonstrated that some of the bodies had been lying in the streets while Russia occupied Bucha.
Poet Maya Angelou said, “When people show you who they are the first time believe them.” We should have expected this sort of behavior from the Putin regime. Vladimir Putin made his bones by flattening Grozny in the second Chechen War in the early zeroes. But his largest scale acts of wanton destruction were saved for Syria.
The Russian Federation went into Syria in the fall of 2015 to prop up the failing one-party state of dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose attempt to destroy the widespread rebellion against him, kicked off by youth revolts in 2011, had faltered.
Russian fighter jets gave air support to the diminished number of troops in the Syrian Arab Army, which had shrunk from 300,000 to 50,000 because of en masse desertions. These troops were aided by the Lebanese party-militia, Hezbollah and by Iraqi Shiite militias, coordinated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
If all Russia had done was to give some air support to the Syrian Army against Muslim fundamentalist rebels, that might be politically unpalatable to some, but it wouldn’t in itself be a crime.
The objectionable actions were the indiscriminate nature of Russian bombardment. The pilots hit schools, hospitals, kindergartens– it just didn’t seem to matter to them.
Aleppo in the north is Syria’s largest city, split into a nice, tony, large West Aleppo where the middle classes stayed loyal to al-Assad, and a much smaller, slummy East Aleppo, which became a rebel stronghold. Some of them were, frankly, proxies for al-Qaeda or at least al-Qaeda-adjacent. They used their base in East Aleppo to cut the whole city off from the main roads to the southern capital of Damascus, and they indiscriminately bombarded West Aleppo, which they hoped to conquer.
So, again, the Syrian government conquest of East Aleppo was warfare pure and simple, however bloody and tragic it may have been. The rebels were a legitimate target, and a good 40 percent of them were not much different from the Sunni Arab rebels the US spent years fighting in Iraq.
But the push on East Aleppo in September and October of 2016 put the civilians of this urban area in the cross hairs, and it would have needed careful military planning to avoid casualties.
Human Rights Watch quoted a report that found that “the bombing campaign killed more than 440 civilians, including more than 90 children. Airstrikes often appeared to be recklessly indiscriminate, deliberately targeted at least one medical facility, and included the use of indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions and incendiary weapons. Satellite imagery that Human Rights Watch analyzed shows more than 950 new distinct impact sites consistent with the detonation of large high explosive bombs across the area during the month.”
The Russians hit a major hospital, among other civilian structures.
HRW’s Ole Solegang observed, “Using that amount of firepower in an urban area with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of civilians predictably killed hundreds of civilians. Those who ordered and carried out unlawful attacks should be tried for war crimes.”
The Russian response? They denied that they had hit a hospital and denied that they had used indiscriminate fire.
The Russian denials were refuted extensively by The Atlantic Council’s report, “Breaking Aleppo,” which analyzed satellite photos and even the newsreel footage of Russia’s own television networks to document the atrocities.
My complaints about Russian war crimes in Syria led the fringe left to attack me for joining the alleged Washington attempt to blacken the image of Putin. (Why the Western left still thinks the capitalist plutocrat Putin needs defending by progressives beats me).
Donald Trump campaigned that fall of 2016 for president on a platform of letting Russia deal with Syria, since, he said, Putin seemed to have a handle on the situation. I still don’t know whether he is just galactically dumb and unprincipled or whether he is a Moscow asset.
Of course, Bucha is much worse than East Aleppo. The Russian troops in that Ukrainian town (and others, unfortunately) appear to have gone berserk and to have taken out their frustration on its civilians. It is one thing to be insufficiently careful about civilian lives during a military campaign, and admittedly the US could be accused of similar infractions in Iraq.
It is another to round up civilians on vague suspicions (one man was wearing army surplus khaki pants) and shoot them in the head, or to murder people shopping for groceries (one corpse lay sprawled atop his bag of precious potatoes). Some were killed during or after torture. This was indiscriminate killing as state terror, to cow the population or perhaps in some instances to take revenge for the failure of the initial Russian war aims. It was personal, in a way that the East Aleppo bombing was not.
But it is still the case that in Syria, Putin told us who he was."
~ From CNN:
Opinion: What's Behind Russia's History of Atrocities?
~ From Associated Press and Frontline:
Scroll to the bottom of the page to see Putin's war crimes verified by AP and Frontline:
~~~~~
~ From The Washington Post:
In Shattered Chernihiv, Russian Siege Leaves a City Asking, " Why ?"
‘We don’t know what we did to deserve this,’ says one resident
"The Mexican ambassador Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez condemned, on April 5, before the Security Council of the United Nations (UN), the "serious violations of international humanitarian law", for the alleged massacre of civilians carried out by the Russian Army in the city of Bucha, in Ukraine.
After the intervention of the Ukrainian president Volodímir Zelenski, the Mexican diplomat pointed out that after seeing "with horror" the images that have been shared of the massacre of civilians in Bucha, "they are the Guernica mural [painted by Pablo Picasso after the bombing that occurred on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War], recreated, once again, with civilian victims”.
“The images of the streets in Bucha and other cities that have circulated widely in recent days have shocked the world. We strongly condemn the atrocities that are reflected in it, there is absolutely nothing that justifies them, protecting the civilian population is an inalienable responsibility of the international community”, said De la Fuente Ramírez.
"The serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law make it necessary to maintain the possibility that war crimes have actually been committed," insisted the permanent representative of Mexico to the UN.
The Mexican ambassador supported the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, "so that impartial investigations be carried out as soon as possible to identify those responsible and ensure effective accountability."
Before the UN Security Council, Mexico condemned the atrocities of the Russian invasion in Bucha, Ukraine.
And he supported impartial investigations.
Here the intervention of Ambassador Juan Ramón de la Fuente ( @MexOnu ).
More, at https://t.co/BjdELZkpfR pic.twitter.com/0UWi1EStJJ
– Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) April 5, 2022
AMBASSADOR OF UKRAINE QUESTIONS MEXICO FOR MAINTAINING RELATIONS WITH UKRAINE
The Ukrainian ambassador to Mexico, Oksana Dramaretska, questioned, on April 4, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, his "friendly relations" with Russian authorities, after Ukrainian authorities announced that they found 410 bodies of civilians in cities close to the capital kyiv.
“Ukrainian soldiers who liberated Bucha, near Kyiv, from Russian invaders report numerous civilians shot dead. The Russians shot them during the invasion and as they retreated from the city. Some of the victims have their hands tied. innocent victims. They did not deserve this, ”Dramaretska indicated, through her Twitter social network account.
President López Obrador: Do you really want to continue to maintain friendly relations with the genocide in the Kremlin after this? The whole world is coordinating efforts to bring Russia to justice. We need the support of Mexico, ”said the Ukrainian diplomat, in another tweet, in which she praised Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
In a Twitter thread, Dramaretksa added that it is urgent that world leaders implement strong measures to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine, such as embargoes on its oil, gas and coal, as well as closing all ports to Russian ships and goods. .
"We must stop them by applying devastating sanctions now," the Ukrainian ambassador demanded. If not, Dramaretska assured that government leaders would bear some responsibility for the crimes that occur in that Eastern European country.
“Following the mass killings of civilians by the Russians in Bucha, politicians who oppose supplying Ukraine with necessary weapons or imposing new sanctions will be held morally responsible for all subsequent casualties,” he concluded.
Mr. President @lopezobrador_ :
Do you really want to continue friendly relations with the genocidaires in the Kremlin after this?
The whole world is coordinating efforts to bring Russia to justice. We need the support of Mexico. @m_ebrard pic.twitter.com/t4Mch3Vbtg
— Oksana Dramaretska (@OkDramaretska) April 3, 2022
BIDEN CALLS TO TRY PUTIN AS A WAR CRIMINALS
On April 4, the president of the United States, Joseph Biden, considered that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, should be tried for war crimes, due to the alleged massacre committed by Russian troops in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
“We have to get all the details so that there can be a war crimes trial,” Biden told the press, arriving at the White House from the state of Delaware. "This guy is brutal and what is happening in Bucha is outrageous," added the US president, who stressed that Putin "should be held accountable" for what happened.
Asked if he considered what happened in Bucha a genocide, Biden said that for him it is a "war crime", which shows that he was right when in mid-March he first described Putin as a "war criminal" for his invasion of Ukraine.
“You will remember that I was criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. The truth is that all of you have seen what has happened in Bucha. That justifies him, he is a war criminal, but we have to collect the information,” Biden stressed.
The US president added that he will continue to "add sanctions" to Russia, as the European Union has also promised to do, after the "atrocities" perpetrated by the Russian Armed Forces in several Ukrainian cities from which they have withdrawn.
AMLO SAYS HE HAS "MUCH RESPECT" FOR PUTIN
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said, on March 30, that he had a lot of “respect” for his Russian counterpart Vladímir Vladímirovich Putin, whom he only considered “a leader”, like any other in the world.
“He is a leader, I do not qualify anyone, it is not Mexico's policy to insult anyone, any foreign people or government. We have a lot of respect for the president of China [Xi Jinping], of Russia, for the president [Joseph] Biden of the United States,” said the Mexican president.
"Mexico is respectful of all peoples and is not a colony of Russia, or China, or the United States, it is a free, independent and sovereign country, it makes me very proud," said the head of the Federal Executive Power.
During his morning press conference, the Tabasco politician again condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but assured that Mexico cannot assume a leading role that goes beyond the neutrality embodied in the Constitution.
"We condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as we condemn all invasions, but we cannot carry out a leading role that goes beyond what is prudent to maintain our neutrality," argued López Obrador.
“That an agreement be reached, that peace be achieved, that people do not suffer, that human lives are not lost, is what I wish. and if there is a way, that they reach agreements. It is not only about confrontations of the peoples, who are always oblivious to the decisions that are made in the leadership and that provoke the rules, it is a matter of being arranged upstairs, ”he added.
“Yesterday I was very pleased that it seems that the agreement between the United States and Venezuela is on the right track, after so many things that have been said. Why the fix? due to the situation in Ukraine, the increase in oil prices”, she added.
“It is convenient for the United States that it can be supplied with oil from Venezuela, and they have already authorized a US oil company, Chevron, to extract a million barrels a day from Venezuela, and this will surely help relations,” he stressed.
EU DOES NOT DICTATE LINE TO MEXICO REGARDING RUSSIA AND UKRAINE, SAYS EBRARD
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), denied that the United States Government, headed by President Joseph Biden, dictates a line to Mexico in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“It is in his role, but it is a decision that corresponds to the Mexican Congress,” said the Mexican foreign minister, regarding the statements of the United States ambassador to Mexico, Keneth Lee Salazar, that Mexico's relationship with Russia cannot be close
"No, the line that Mexico has taken can be found in the positions in the Security Council of the United Nations Organization," replied the federal official, interviewed by the newspaper El Universal, prior to his participation in the World Summit of Governments (World Government Summit).
“Last week Mexico had an important advance with the resolution of the General Assembly of the [United Nations Organization] UN, with 140 votes. It is the Mexican diplomacy, together with France, so that there is a cessation of hostilities, between humanitarian aid and negotiations begin”, insisted the head of the SRE.
Ebrard Casaubón also pointed out that Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command, must present evidence that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU, for its acronym in Russian), has deployed in Mexican territory more officials than in any other country in the world, with the aim of influencing the United States.
UNACCEPTABLE FOR THE US TO TRY TO INFLUENCE RELATIONS WITH MEXICO, SAYS RUSSIA
"We consider that it is unacceptable when the United States tries to influence the activity and decisions of the Government of Mexico," the Russian Embassy said on March 25 through its account on the social network Twitter.
The Russian embassy rejected Salazar's statement to the effect that Mexico has no friendship with any other nation like the one it has with the United States.
“Do you take into account the annexation by the United States, Mexico's 'best friend', of half of its national territory in the 19th century?”, added the Russian Embassy.
The Russian diplomatic representation added that the purpose of US propaganda is to isolate Russia and diplomats from that country from around the world, through false news, as was the case with the number of spies from that country in Mexico.
“In this context, we would like to address Mr. Salazar asking him in the most friendly way the following question: Who are the more than a thousand US diplomats who work at the US Embassy in Mexico?” they asserted.
📌 We have read the speech of the Hon. Ambassador 🇺🇸 @USAmbMex on the occasion of the installation of the United States-Mexico Friendship Group.
☝️ We would like to remind you that each sovereign country has its right to decide how to build its foreign policy
📎 https://t.co/7ZaYkQtmal pic.twitter.com/Z3N4rEEf5l
– Russian Embassy in Mexico (@EmbRusiaMexico) March 25, 2022
EU AMBASSADOR REPROACHES FRIENDSHIP GROUP OF RUSSIA AND MEXICO IN SAN LAZARO
Keneth Lee Salazar, head of the United States Embassy in Mexico, criticized, on March 24, the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group in the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union, which was attended by the Russian ambassador Víktor Koronelli .
During the installation of the United States-Mexico Friendship Group in the Lower House, the US diplomat pointed out that his Russian counterpart made "noise" about an alleged relationship between Mexico and Russia.
Likewise, Salazar reminded the Mexican federal deputies that Mexico and the United States united "for freedom" in World War II against the intentions of Adolf Hitler and the Axis Forces.
"We have to be in solidarity with Ukraine and against Russia. It seems to me that the Russian ambassador was here yesterday making a noise that Mexico and Russia were so close, and that, sorry, can never happen, can never happen," he declared. the American ambassador.
“We can no longer say that this is happening on the other side of the world because it can affect us here in Mexico. What [Vladímir] Putin and the Russians are doing is something that I thought I would never see,” Salazar stressed.
“What Russia did by attacking Ukraine is an attack on the freedom and way of life of all of us. When the family is attacked, if someone threatens it, the whole family joins. Here we are talking about a Friendship Group between Mexico and the United States, there can be no differences, we have to do the same”, emphasized the American diplomat.
Ken Salazar, ambassador of the United States in Mexico, criticized the reception given by the Chamber of Deputies to the Russian ambassador, Víktor Koronelli, before the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group in the midst of the invasion of Ukraine. He said so.
More, at: https://t.co/f936pDDXuT pic.twitter.com/OlJtc2qXcp
– Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) March 24, 2022
On March 23, despite the rejection of the deputies of the parliamentary groups of the National Action Party (PAN) and the Citizen Movement (MC), the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group was installed in the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union.
Alberto Anaya Gutiérrez, deputy of the Labor Party (PT) parliamentary group and who presided over the installation of the Group, reiterated that the Government of Mexico determined not to issue any sanctions against Russia and welcomed their relations.
"Due to this conflict between Ukraine and Russia, we are going to be in a situation of peace and neutrality, relations are welcome," said the deputy before Viktor Koronelli, head of the Russian Embassy in Mexico.
"Our votes are for this conflict to have a diplomatic solution, a peaceful solution, where the parties agree to end this conflict so that this region of the world finds peace again and this conflict does not escalate," insisted Anaya Gutiérrez.
In the installation of the Group, the Russian ambassador in Mexico, Víktor Koronelli, maintained that Russia did not start "this war", referring to his country's invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
The Russian diplomat described the war as an operation to demilitarize Ukraine, and thus put an end to the "extermination" of the Russian community in Donbas by the Ukrainian Army, which, according to him, has lasted 8 years.
On the other hand, Koronelli recognized the position of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), of not joining the sanctions against Russia and rejecting Ukraine's request to send weapons.
“We greatly respect the position demonstrated, already several times, by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, that Mexico will never join the anti-Russian sanctions and that it will never, despite the requests of the Government of Ukraine, ever supply Ukraine with weapons, ”he said.
"I want to assure you that I have no doubt that what is happening these days is not going to affect Russia's relations with Mexico in any way, which continues to be one of our oldest and most important partners in the Latin American region," the Russian ambassador said.
“In 2021 alone, despite COVID and all restrictions, our trade more than doubled compared to 2020, reaching a record $4.8 billion,” added Koronelli.
The diplomat quoted the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who a few days ago said that: "Today in the world there are countries like China, India, Mexico that will never answer and do anything at the order of Uncle Sam."
Separately, the MC parliamentary group demonstrated for the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group, with signs that said "No to war." While the PAN caucus demanded a ceasefire and a solution to the conflict based on International Humanitarian Law.
“For no reason do we agree with being part of the recklessness and lack of sensitivity of the situation that Ukraine is going through with the invasion of Russian troops in its territory, which has resulted in 2,421 civilian victims and more than 6.5 million displaced people”, stated the PAN parliamentary group.
🟡 LIVE / Installation of the Mexico-Russian Federation Friendship Group. https://t.co/MQhxtBH41A
– Chamber of Deputies (@Mx_Diputados) March 23, 2022 "
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So glad to hear PAN caucus group and some others are on the ball.
Take care everyone, pray for Ukraine.
I don't know why, I just felt like this...
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