Russian forces in Ukraine are sliding further into depravity. At least 50 civilians were killed on Friday, including five children, and 300 injured from a rocket strike at a train depot in the city of Kramatorsk in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. While the Russian propaganda machine, sickeningly adopted by some Americans, blames Ukrainians for using civilians as “human shields,” the train depot was used as a means of evacuation by these same civilians. Security forces, stepping over belongings scattered like grains of rice around the depot, checked bodies for signs of life. There were an estimated four thousand civilians at the depot at that time. Two Russian rockets, five booms. This was a brazen hit.
According to Sky news correspondent John Sparks, “What we think has happened is that it has exploded in the air above this area because it has distributed explosives throughout this area in multiple locations, seemingly randomly.”
In other words, two rockets flew over the air and exploded randomly over a train station with about 4,000 men, women and children inside and in the vicinity.
The Russian government, of course, denies any wrongdoing. They use the same words to deflect blame- describing any allegation against them as a “provocation” and “absolutely untrue.” An habitual reading of Russia’s responses shows they repeat yesterday’s press release. They always blame someone else– it’s never their fault.
This reminds me of the kid pointing at the other kid after he hit him in the groin, saying the other kid did it to himself. That’s what the bully wants you to believe. There’s no remorse because there’s no cognitive dissonance- the kid believes it himself. One of the conspiracy theories propagated by Putin apologists is that Ukraine is killing its own people and blaming Russia for the destruction. Even with satellite images corroborating eyewitness accounts, they want people to suspend reality- and it appears to be working. There are reports that Ukrainians, speaking to their relatives in Russia, cannot convince them of what is happening in Ukraine. The Russian government has become so good at mesmerizing the public that some Russians believe the propaganda rather than their own flesh and blood.
The Russian government wants people to believe that every other news source is wrong and subconsciously, that they are the sole bearer of the truth. Ever hear that before? They want people to deny what they see. It’s something out of the Asch’s social experiment in 1951. Do you trust what you see? With enough heat, every metal will conform.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is so addicted to power and authoritarianism that he believes he can hoodwink people outside of Russia. If you tell the same story long enough, it will become truth. It all starts with the mind and what you believe, not what you see. If you propagate the same lie long enough, you start to believe it. Ukraine, at least, when presented with a video showing a Ukrainian shooting a Russian POW, said it would investigate. Russia denies every allegation at the outset.
It all starts with the mind and what you believe, not what you see. If you propagate the same lie long enough, you start to believe it.
The Ukrainians and Baltic states, who know Russia well, have issued warnings not to trust Putin. Do not mistake him for being part of the boys’ club. He is a dangerous and ruthless man impervious to the self-determination of anyone except himself. And he has nuclear weapons.
The world is his oyster, and he wants to grow his oyster.
On one of the missiles, someone handwrote, in white Cyrilic letters, “for children.” What does this even mean? Russians have attacked and killed Ukrainian children, not the other way around. Why are Russians attacking Ukrainians with a missile that says, “for children?” Are they messing with us so we can stretch into their reality? This very rocket stands a 50-50 chance of being one of the rockets that killed five children yesterday at the train depot. They probably didn’t know that they had brushed their teeth for the last time that morning. Did the person who launched the missile care whether it would miss anyone ethnically Russian? To inquire why this person or group of people did it is to offer some hope of compassion for the perpetrators.
The tragic part of all of this is the western world is tiptoeing around a madman. He calls the tune, and we dance to it, because he has nuclear weapons. We are more afraid of his nuclear weapons than he is of ours.
The tragic part of all of this is the western world is tiptoeing around a madman…. We are more afraid of his nuclear weapons than he is of ours.
Russians claim Ukrainians are using civilians as human shields. So when Russians hit a 15 story apartment building, is that the Ukrainian military using civilians as human shields? The Russians can’t go around a building? They have to pummel it? When they bomb theaters the sides of which the Ukrainians wrote the word “children,” in their invaders’ language, in letters so large it is impossible to miss by air, and the Russians still press the button, is that the Ukrainian military using civilians as human shields? When they bomb hospitals, schools, and maternity clinics without warning, is that due to lack of accuracy? Were they aiming for something else? It would be conceivable if it didn’t happen with such frequency. Or do the Russians seriously believe this is a setup by the Ukrainians? The past 45 days, the president of Ukraine has lived in a bunker and has come up for air surrounded by bodyguards because he’s an actor and he made sure every detail is accounted for. These are the same people that believe the US mission to the moon was also staged.
Putin’s playbook sure looks familiar. In Syria, Chechnya, and now Ukraine, the Russians leave a path of destruction. They spare no one in their path.
It has often been cited by people that know Putin well that he understands only one thing- force. The US and EU slap more sanctions to “combat” Russian aggression. Putin laughs at the fly swatter and continues the war. It’s a cultural misstep. Europe fails to recognize that it is civilized in its approach to war and Russia is not. The only thing that will stop the war is what the Ukrainians are doing- engaging in combat, or something the Ukrainians will not do- submit. These are the only languages Putin understands.
Both Russia and Ukraine are patriarchal societies. Ukraine will not take likely its women being raped or its children and elderly killed. Russia’s atrocities, whether or not the elite establishment deigns to call them war crimes, will motivate Ukrainians, by which I mean all residents of Ukraine, ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, to fight harder. I think some Ukrainians will take their anger out on individual Russians, some of which may constitute war crimes. This is what happens when your opponent ignores the rules of war. Russia’s atrocities will take some Ukrainians to a very dark place.
Darkness invites darkness.
