Apr 12: Zelensky's address on Russian war crime

President Zelensky’s address on Russian war crime

There is something that noone in the world can ignore. How easily these beasts kill. This video, the execution of a Ukrainian captive. This is a video of Russia as it is. What kind of people there are.

There are no people for them. A son, a brother, a husband, someone’s child. This is a video of Russia just trying to make that the new norm. Such a habit of destroying life.

This is not an accident. This is not an episode. This was the case earlier. This was the case in Bucha. Thousands of times. Everyone must react. Every leader.

Don’t expect it to be forgotten. That time will pass. We are not going to forget anything. Neither are we going to forgive the murderers. There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of terror is necessary.

No one will understand if the leaders don’t react. Action is required now.

And we in Ukraine must focus on the frontline as much as possible. Help as much as possible. Expel the occupier from our land.

The main goal is to win. The main goal is strength for Ukraine to win. Defeat of the occupier, sentences to murderers. Tribunal for the evil state. Eternal memory to every person whose life was taken by the Russian terror. Glory to all who fight against this evil. Glory to Ukraine.

On Tuesday, a video began circulating on Telegram channels and then on Twitter, showing the beheading of a live Ukrainian POW. It’s a war crime committed by Russian forces, and it isn’t new. Since 1994, the Russian armed forces have filmed their atrocities, and evidence of Russian war crimes dates back to the imperialist and Soviet periods. We just weren’t paying attention.

When I first began to study and follow Russia’s wars, I spoke with investigators who had translated video recordings from war theatres in Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine and Syria. Two investigators said they were traumatised by what they had seen: far from public scrutiny, Russia got away with each and every one of these savage acts.

It was only until January 2023, for example, that the US government designated the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary organisation, as a ‘transnational criminal organization’. Many activists, Kremlin watchers, and Western leadership have been advocating going further: designate Russia a terrorist state due to the kinetic and non-kinetic activities of its leaders, entrepreneurs, institutional stakeholders, and armed forces. Others have called for the designation of Russia, a state sponsor of terrorism. There are legal definitions and consequences either way.

Olena Halushka’s comment above reminds us that these attrocities may be happening on a daily basis in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The mass graves uncovered in Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, Lyman, and the torture chambers discovered in villages in the liberated territories in Kharkiv Oblast are a testament to the war crimes of the Russian leadership and forces. In the E-Stories Video Library, a video reportage about a Russian concentration camp in a village near Chernihiv has been posted. As more Ukrainian territory is liberated, there will be more information and testimony to record about the attrocities Ukrainians have had to endure and survive.