From JonahDispatch: Putin's war on Ukraine in sinister tradition of Russian war machine
These weren’t isolated incidents but the beginning of a campaign of atrocities to come. Numerous mass graves full of corpses, some showing evidence of execution, rape and torture, have been found in areas liberated by Ukrainian forces. The bodies of mutilated children have been discovered. Such horrors can distract from the more routine evils of targeting civilians, including schools and hospitals and the stealing of thousands of children.
But the most conspicuous fact that’s absent from the public conversation is that the Russian military has been a villainous force for more than a century.Article contentThe horrendous crimes of imperial Russia were part of a pre-modern era of warfare prior to the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war. But it’s worth remembering that the armies of the czars were famously brutal even for a brutal age.
Putin has built on the Soviet effort to turn the Second World War into a kind of state religion, in which the messianic Red Army saved Europe from fascism. Obviously, the Russian sacrifice in that war — after Hitler broke his pact with Stalin — was staggering. But the Soviet approach to war — using Russian soldiers as fodder for enemy guns until the enemy is exhausted — replicated in Ukraine today is nothing to be proud of.
In Vienna alone, there were between 70,000 and 100,000 rapes. Estimates in Soviet-controlled Poland exceed 100,000. In Germany, they run as high as 2 million. Stalin dismissed complaints, saying that his troops had been through so much they deserved to “ fun with a woman.”The full scale of the mass rapes will never be known, in part because the Soviets destroyed records and kept them secret until the end.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
GOLDBERG: Putin's war on Ukraine in sinister tradition of Russian war machineVladimir Putin and his war machine get more respect than they deserve from the West.
Read more »
Russian hackers are targeting Canada for supporting UkraineHackers claim to have targeted government websites and a Canadian gas company
Read more »
Trudeau links support for Ukraine to Russian cyberattacks on Canada - National | Globalnews.caPro-Russian groups have claimed responsibility for recent cyberattacks, including on Trudeau's website and those for critical infrastructure providers.
Read more »
Russian court fines Wikipedia for article about Ukraine warThe state Tass news agency said the Wikimedia Foundation had failed to heed the demands of Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor to remove articles containing ‘false information’
Read more »
Ukrainian family safe in Quebec after surviving Russian airstrikesThe psychological scars still give Aurika Olkhova nightmares and loud noises trigger memories of the bombings, but ‘the girls are happy’ in Quebec
Read more »
Wickenheiser, Virtue and Hughes among 42 former Canadian Olympians banned from RussiaThe Russian Foreign Ministry said it was closing its borders to 333 Canadians for signing a statement encouraging the removal of Russian athletes from next year’s Paris Olympics
Read more »