On change – Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz:

‘The gruesome footage revealed over the weekend in the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin and Bucha – of the bodies of Ukrainian civilians, some with their hands bound, both lying by the roadside and in shallow graves – tells an inescapable story. The Russian troops who occupied those areas in the past four weeks, before being pushed back by the Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive, carried out widespread murders among the occupied population before retreating northward, their vehicles laden with pillaged property, to the Belarusian border.
Until now, there have been multiple reports of murder, rape and looting in the areas of Russian occupation, and of course claims by the Ukrainian government of atrocities. The sights from the streets of Irpin and Bucha now leave little doubt that war crimes have been carried out systematically.’

(…)

‘In other parts of Ukraine, particularly in the southeast where Russia is still in control of most of the areas it managed to capture in the initial stages of the war, there is very little media presence. The Ukrainian communication networks have been shut down and civilians forced to use Russian SIM cards, preventing them from sharing images.
Mayors, civil activists and journalists are being kidnapped and killed to prevent the truth coming out. If anything, the reports emerging from those regions are even worse than those we’re now seeing around Kyiv, where the Ukrainian military is back in control.
Sadly, there is nothing to be surprised about. It all tallies with the reports from previous war zones in which the Russian army has been active in recent decades. From the two wars in Chechnya, from Georgia and, most recently, the war in Syria – where Russia provided the firepower from the air, bombing undefended civilian areas, and where the forces on the ground were the Assad regime or provided by its Iranian allies, Hezbollah and other Shia militias.’

(…)

‘The only difference in this case is that, for the first time in Vladimir Putin’s wars, an area captured by his forces has been swiftly liberated while the physical evidence is still there on the ground and, also for the first time, the world’s attention is fully focused on the crime scene.
But will that actually change anything? Even without the full media coverage we now have from the suburbs of Kyiv, there was ample evidence of Russian war crimes being committed on all those battlefields over the past two decades, from Grozny to Aleppo. Anyone who cared to know, knew full well. The United States and its allies chose not to intervene in Syria, even before the Russians deployed there in 2015 and President Barack Obama reneged on his “red line” commitment to respond to the use of chemical weapons against civilians. Putin knew then that his Sukhoi bombers could target hospitals and bakeries with impunity.’

(…)

‘Nothing will change but, if anything, this latest development will make the already remote chance of Russia and Ukraine reaching a cease-fire agreement even more distant.
Putin clearly has only one intention: suppressing by any means any spirit of Ukrainian independence, no matter how many Ukrainians – whom he considers disloyal Russians – happen to die in the process.
And now that the full truth of what is happening in the Russian-occupied zones is coming out, the Ukrainian government will be in no position to face its own people if it agrees to a cease-fire where Russia remains in control of parts of the east.’

Read the article here.

The difference between Ukraine and Syria is that Syria is in the Middle East, predominantly a Muslim country and there is this vague suspicion in the West that dying for those people is different than for a Westerner. (An American general said something along these lines about Asian people during the Vietnam War if I’m not mistaken. Could not find the quote on the Internet.)

And when were war crimes a reason to go to war?

Whether the war crimes will make it more difficult to get a cease-fire remains to be seen. As soon as the war is more or less over Zelensky’s approval ratings will plumet.

And will Ukraine be Russia’s Vietnam? Wait and see, and keep in mind that Vietnam did not mark the end of the American century. After the brief interlude of Carter and Mondale Reagan came, Thatcher in the UK, nine years later the Berlin wall came down and some philosopher claimed that history had ended. And then came 9/11, not to forget Yugoslavia.

Oh, history.