By XHABIR DERALLA
A hundred days of immense suffering of civilians in a brutal and senseless war. That makes 2,400 hours of systematic war crimes, looting, and insane destruction. Hundreds of women and girls, even babies – RAPED. Thousands of people tortured, many executed at point-blank, with their hands tied in the back. Hundreds of thousands of people captured and transported to “filtration camps” and Russia, including 200,000 children. Over five million refugees, and over ten million internally displaced people. Genocide.
This is the summary of the crimes ordered by Putin and conducted by the Russian army and paramilitaries during the 100 days of the Russian “special military operation” for “liberation” and “denazification” of Ukraine. These are the 100 days of culmination of Putin’s hybrid war against democracy and freedom.
Is there a “moderate” tone to describe Putin’s war?
Here we are, the humanity in the midst of an aggression, an utterly brutal and insane one. Most of the notes for this article were written in a moderate tone, in a course of the last seven days, since May 27, as an attempt to provide as objective and neutral view of the cruelest war since WW2. Is there a “moderate” tone to describe Putin’s war against Ukraine and the rest of the world? Well, I find it impossible to keep moderate tone while writing about cruelty and absurdity of the Russian war against humanity. Why should I try pleasing some phony “principles” of “objectivity and neutrality” that are based on false balance? It should be an impersonal writing, some say, in order to be relevant. Another nonsense in a different package.
I have to admit – I take this war quite personally, and I have many reasons for that. First and above all – I am outraged at the cruelty of the Russian state and army, even ordinary people who support the war or “do not want to talk about politics.” Indeed, to say such a thing is to silently agree with the aggression.
This war is against everything that I stand for. Ukraine is only the first and bloodiest station of this blood thirsty rampage. Putin’s herds of sadistic torturers, murderers and rapists are a threat for each and every woman, girl and child in the world. Of course, my article is personal and not “neutral”, it would be sick if it isn’t.
Putin has lost the war
One thing is clear: Putin has suffered an utter military embarrassment and failure. The only thing he commanded well is conducting a genocide against the Ukrainian people. And united the world in support of Ukraine and its heroes on the battlefronts. If for nothing else, politicians need to reckon with the disappointment of their voters if they fail to act against the Russian evil. That is how Putin has lost his war, already in the first few days after he set his boot on Ukrainian soil, already in 2014.
Yet, Putin has achieved one more thing for sure. The immense and indescribable suffering he caused in Ukraine has put an end to the world as we know it. Can it be any worse? Indeed, this is only the beginning. Can it be better? Not in a very long time, if ever. Is a nuclear apocalypse possible? Yes.
The story is much older than the total onslaught against Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, one may argue. Sure, but that date is most likely the beginning of the end of the world as we know it.
A war based on lies
A war based on lies. Only days before the total invasion, MFA Lavrov was assuring the world that Russia is not planning on attacking neighboring Ukraine. Yet, it attacked. Until then and from that point on, everything that comes from Kremlin is a lie. One big L-I-E. The similarity of the attack with the blitzkrieg in the WW2 was striking. Well, despite the attempts, the Russian-style blitzkrieg turned into a drunken rampage and systematic slaughter of civilians and rape of women and children, even babies. The premeditated genocide became obvious already after we’ve seen the horrid scenes of Bucha, Irpen and other towns in April. The war continued in the same manner. So it is now, while I’m writing. And so is the lie living in the minds of those who give in to the filthy propaganda too easily.
Why is the Russian war against Ukraine any different from the invasion of Iraq, or Afghanistan, or other US-led wars? Why those who try to put an equation between Russia and USA or NATO, fail to provide sense and credibility to their “math”?
The answer is simple. Complete disregard of international law, for starters. It is an absolutely unprovoked and unjust aggression, based on utterly false narratives – LIES. A premeditated war on civilians. It is a genocide. And, it is openly a war against the rest of the world. Russia is basically saying: “Don’t come any closer to me, or I will not only wipe the neighboring country away, but I will launch my nuclear warheads onto your countries, too. At a price of destroying the whole life on Earth.”
A century and a 100 days of evil
In 100 days only, Russia has revealed itself as sheer evil. Putin ordered a carpet destruction of countless homes, infrastructure, hundreds of schools, kindergartens, and cultural institutions, elderly homes, and hospitals, even maternity hospitals. By doing all this, Russia has lost a historical chance to be one of the leading nations in the world. Instead, it has achieved to be remembered as the darkest enemy of humanity in the history of human kind.
The world seemed ready to forget the savagery of the Russian state and its war machinery in the past decades, including Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Syria. It certainly turned a blind eye on the cruelty of waging wars against civilian population, including its own peoples, in the times of Soviet Union. For the sake of the war against the Nazi regime in Germany, the world ignored the equally inhumane regime born in the Stalin’s era.
For most of the second half of the 20th century, Russians battered and exploited nations across Eastern Europe and Asia. Their police state has captured more than a dozen of nations within the former Soviet Union. Many of them are part of or within the strong grip of the current Russian Federation. Poverty, fear and propaganda are the meals served under the Russian boots, day in, day out, for decades.
Will Ukraine be forgotten?
The absurdly vicious and cruel destruction of Ukraine has changed the international order for a very long time, if not forever. It has set precedents that will put nations in peril, at the will of militant regimes and dictators. Human rights and freedoms will diminish under the waves of paranoia. States’ security will become a priority, and the new collective defense rules will exclude individual rights and freedoms to a great extent, if not entirely.
Will Ukraine be forgotten? It won’t. The world is appalled by the brutality and maniacal blood-thirstiness of the common soldiers and paramilitaries under Putin’s banner. And it is not only because of the world’s love and appreciation of Ukraine’s heroic fight for freedom. It is Putin’s attack on the world’s order, security and well-being, along with the brutal attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and freedom. That’s what makes Russia’s war against Ukraine an alarming issue for the rest of the world. This time, the world needs to go to the bitter end of this war – if it wants to save itself.
All rights reserved. Personal view of the Author.
