Chornobyl – russia’s Nuclear Terror in Ukraine

Regarded as the world’s most dangerous nuclear accident, Chornobyl stands out in history as another example of russia’s premeditated or negligent murder in Ukraine. Ukrainians and other people around the world suffered as a result of this catastrophe in a small town north of Kyiv on April 26, 1986. Soviet russian officials quickly learned of this but chose not to inform local residents and the global community. Consequently, children in and around the Ukrainian capital continued with their daily outdoor activities while fine particles of nuclear dust descended on them. In time, this dangerous powder reached western Ukraine, north to Belarus and other regions of the planet.

A decade later, when I was an adjunct at Hofstra University, I wrote an article about this disaster for my students’ periodical. I’d like to share that article with you on the 37^th anniversary of the russia’s typical deadly malfeasance in Ukraine.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:3d1be25a-e3fe-3381-8bb4-db9b18795fb9

russians Behead Ukrainian Soldiers

What do you say about a culture that practices beheading of prisoners of war? We were aghast to see on video Islamic State cutthroats perform this heinous crime.

The bloody list of war crimes committed in Ukraine by invading russian murderers at least since February 24, 2022 if not longer, has shocked the global community. Unarmed civilians – men, women and children – have fallen into their crosshairs. And so have prisoners of war. For russians, it matters not who they kill in Ukraine. If they speak Ukrainian or if they love their native Ukrainian land, they are in mortal danger at the hands of russian killers.

We’ve barely digested watching the incredible coldblooded killing of a Ukrainian POW after he replied “Glory to Ukraine” to a group of russian killers when we learned of the beheading – decapitation of the head, the chopping off of the head – of Ukrainian POWs. There’s really no clean way to say this.

I heard of this yesterday in a colleague’s LinkedIn post, in which he said that he had mustered the courage to watch the video and listen to the horrific screams as russians beheaded the Ukrainian soldiers. I daresay that few people would have the moral strength to watch that clip.

Today newsmedia began reporting this latest russian crime.

Two videos appear to be of separate events – one of them may have been filmed very recently, while the other, from the amount of foliage seen on the ground, looks like it was filmed during the summer of 2022.

The first video, which was posted to a pro-Russian social media channel on April 8, 2023, was purportedly filmed by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle.

In the video, CNN and others reported, a voice can be heard, behind the camera, the sound seemingly distorted to prevent the speaker’s identification.

“(The armored vehicle) got f**ked by a mine,” the voice, speaking Russian, says.

Apparently referring to the bodies on the ground, the voice, laughing, continues, “They killed them. Someone came up to them. They came up to them and cut their heads off.” The dead soldiers also appear to have had their hands cut off, CNN reported.

Russian social media accounts say the video was shot near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which has been the scene of the war’s fiercest fighting for many months, with Wagner fighters heavily involved.

The second video, which was posted on Twitter and is heavily blurred, looks to have been filmed during the summer of 2022 because of the amount of plant life on the ground. It shows a Russian fighter using a knife to cut off the head of a Ukrainian soldier. A voice at the beginning of the video suggests the victim might have still been alive when the attack began.

Ukrainian officials compared russia to the Islamic State and called on the International Criminal Court to investigate after a video emerged online showing apparent russian soldiers filming themselves beheading a Ukrainian captive with a knife, reported Reuters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today condemned as “beasts” those who purportedly beheaded Ukrainian soldiers shown in two videos that emerged on social media in the past week.

Zelenskyy vowed those behind the purported atrocities would be held accountable. “There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill,” he said in a video message. “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,” he said.

Dariia Zarivna, adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said today the videos are part of a psychological operation “aimed at intimidation.”

“It completely dehumanizes and demonstrates the essence of a terrorist country,” she said of the videos. “But it is important to understand the purpose. This is a PSYOP [psychological operation] aimed at intimidation. The target audience is not only Ukraine, but also Western societies,” Zarivna reasoned.

“It doesn’t work on us, though. The Russians are afraid of this, but not us.”

What do you say about a national culture that invades a neighbor and commits incredible evident crimes against humanity and then flaunts them on social media? What do you say about a national culture that kills prisoners of war, unarmed men, women and children, destroys their churches, libraries and infrastructure? What do you say about a national culture that tolerates these war crimes? What do you say about the brutal, terrorist russians? Think about that the next time you network with a russian businessman, academician or government official. Think about that the next time reach for

russian vodka or other made-in-russia product in your local store.

The Abomination of Kidnapping and Beating Children

Beating defenseless children is probably one of the vilest crimes in society. It is categorically condemned by governments, courts, religions and people of good will.

Not only has russia’s führer putin been labeled a war criminal for kidnapping Ukrainian children and forcibly taking them to russia, his evil, depraved minions have been beating and torturing them for saying “Slava Ukrayini” – Glory to Ukraine.

According to the Daily Telegraph UK, russian authorities are beating Ukrainian children as they attempt to “re-educate them” to become loyal russians and to forget their parents and heritage, said one of more than a dozen teenagers freed from moscow-run youth facilities after months of negotiation.

The parents of the children transported to a youth camp on the Black Sea peninsula last year managed to bring their children back to Ukraine, the newspaper reported. The children, mostly teenagers, were living in russia-occupied area of the Kherson and Kharkiv regions when local education authorities suggested sending them to a summer camp in Crimea, which has been controlled by russia since 2014.

Save Ukraine, the charity that organized the evacuation, said it helped some parents to travel to Crimea, via Poland, belarus and russia to retrieve their children. As expected, parents and children, who were seeing their mothers and fathers for the first time in months, were seen hugging and kissing as they arrived in Kyiv.

One boy spoke of his mistreatment during a television interview. The teenager, who was not identified, said children from Kherson were punished for expressing pro-Ukrainian views.

“We will take you to an orphanage, you will sit there and understand everything,” the boy said a security officer had told him and other teenagers. He also said he saw a bruise on the back of a teenage girl that had been caused by a stick used by the officer to beat them.

The boy added that the camp’s director had told him his parents had given him up for adoption. Distraught, he called his mother, who called camp officials to tell them she had done no such thing. However, administrators allegedly told her: “You’re not going to take them anyway. They will be children of russia.”

Those who returned to Ukraine have spoken about the attempts to re-educate the youths. At some camps, they were forced to learn by heart and sing the russian national anthem and taught that Ukraine was part of russia.

The US State Department said there is mounting evidence that russia’s actions reveals the kremlin’s aims to deny and suppress Ukraine’s identity, history, and culture, which is an act of genocide. “The devastating impacts of putin’s war on Ukraine’s children will be felt for generations,” the State Department said.

At least 6,000 children from Ukraine have attended russian “re-education” camps in the past year, with several hundred held there for weeks or months beyond their scheduled return date, according to a new report published in the US, The Guardian of Great Britain reported. These places focus on brainwashing, torture, punishment and intimidation in order to change the youth’s mentality. The Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General said in December 2022 that nearly 800 had died or disappeared during the process of deportation.

Russia has also unnecessarily expedited the adoption and fostering of children from Ukraine in what could constitute a war crime, the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab report found. The report was funded by the State Department.

Every day reveals another detestable crime committed by russia. Its so-called soldiers are incompetent so they turn to bombing residential buildings, energy infrastructures, kidnapping children and killing and raping civilians and their offspring. The gallows is too merciful for Russians.

One Step Closer to Satisfying the Restless Martyrs

In one fell swoop, a thousand years of muscovite and russian crimes against the Ukrainian nation that brought forth rivers of blood and tears may finally be adjudicated for all the world to see.

Regardless if we ever have the opportunity to watch the hangman pull the lever, dropping putin through the gallows’ trapdoor into oblivion or not, the mere fact of the matter is that people are now aware of the countless russian crimes against Ukrainians that have been rolled up into one formal fitting condemnation.

Friday, March 17, 2023, will live in the hearts and minds of people of good will around the world as the day the International Criminal Court stood on the side of justice and ruled that there is enough evidence to issue an arrest warrant against vladimir putin, the so-called president of russia but in reality its bloody dictator, surpassing the brutality to Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milošević, Nicolae Ceaușescu and others.

Almost 13 months after russia again invaded Ukraine and after innumerable atrocities committed against Ukrainian civilians, The Hague issued an arrest warrant for putin, claiming that moscow’s forcible deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children is a war crime. The court also issued a warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, russia’s self-styled commissioner for children’s rights, on the same charges. The ICC has charged putin with being involved in the deportation of children, adding that it has reasonable grounds to believe he committed the acts directly, as well as working with others.

The court said in a statement that putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the russian federation.”

Once in russia, the Ukrainian children, who were abducted from their parents or legal guardians and therefore actually kidnapped, are put up for adoption by russian families and then are given russian citizenship, all of which are in a violation of a range of laws.

The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the russian federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant against putin was historic and blamed him for the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children. “This is an historic decision which will lead to historic accountability,” he said in his nightly video address. The real number of deported children could be far more than 16,000 and their deportations constituted a policy of “state evil which starts precisely with the top official of this state.”

Zelenskyy added, “It would have been impossible to enact such a criminal operation without the say-so of the man at the helm of the terrorist state.”

The announcement provoked a furious response from moscow. Kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov said russia, which is not a signatory of the Rome Protocols that formed the ICC and claims it is not bound by its decisions, found the very questions raised by the ICC “outrageous and unacceptable,” and that any decisions of the court were “null and void” with respect to russia. Russia, the United States and China are not members of the ICC. Despite the warrants, the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects, and can only exercise jurisdiction within countries who are signed up to the agreement that set up the court. In other words, putin cannot leave russia.

“Yankees, hands off Putin!” wrote parliament speaker vyacheslav volodin, a close ally of putin, on Telegram. “We regard any attacks on the president of the russian federation as aggression against our country,” he said.

The arrest warrant against putin and the indelible stain of guilt will be personifications of every crime committed by every russian despot for a thousand years. With putin in the dock or at the gallows or in restricted freedom in russia, he will be encircled by the spirits of all Ukrainian men, women and children killed in this war against Ukraine, Bucha, little Liza, the POW who fearlessly declared “Glory to Ukraine,” the martyrs of previous wars, Bykivnia, Holodomor, Sandarmokh, Bazar, Kruty, Baturyn and other known and unknown killing fields.

Some may say that since putin will never be caught, tried and sentenced, this indictment is meaningless. Nothing could be farther from the truth. From the charges of illegally deporting Ukrainian children to russia during war – a war crime – putin faces other allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The list of the culpable does not end with him. Co-conspirators include lavrov, peskov, shoigu and their lowly naïve cutthroat in uniform who shot civilians. It casts a damning shadow on all who seek audiences with putin and his criminal gang, it raises questions about the integrity of institutions that call russians members such as the United Nations, and it besmirches liberal russians who choose not to denounce putin and renounce russia.

The warrant for the arrest of putin declares before humanity that the president of russia, a member-state of the United Nations, is a criminal and he must be regarded as such by countries, governments and people. He is a wanted man like a common criminal. Russians, especially, can run but they can’t hide from this appellation against their leader and by association their nation.

This warrant establishes that russia’s war against Ukraine is a crime, russia is guilty of war crimes and genocide. Indeed, while they’ll deny and belittle the ICC’s ruling, it will remain an embarrassment for all russians for generations to come.

The world now knows that there is ample evidence to declare that russians lied about why they invaded Ukraine, that they are guilty of indiscriminate killing of Ukrainian civilians and children, that their intention is to annihilate all Ukrainians and subjugate Ukraine, and by association all russians are guilty on all charges.

This empire of criminal cards is finally collapsing on top of the kremlin and its criminal mob. Justified accusations of a wide range of criminal activities, murders, human rights violations against russia are surfacing. A day before the ICC revealed its decision a UN-backed report stated that repeated russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

The sweeping human rights report, released a year to the day after a Russian airstrike on a theater in Mariupol killed hundreds sheltering inside, including children, marked a highly unusual condemnation of a member of the UN Security Council. Among potential crimes against humanity, the report cited recurrent attacks targeting Ukrainian infrastructure since the fall that left hundreds of thousands without heat and electricity during the coldest months, as well as the “systematic and widespread” use of torture across multiple regions under russian occupation.

To be sure, the world was aware of russian aggression against Ukraine and crimes against humanity. The United Nations had designated russia an aggressor state for its invasion and seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. In 2016 the United Nations officially condemned russia as an “occupier” of foreign lands just like Nazi Germany and other tyrannical empires were.

Hopefully, the ICC arrest warrant and the UN report will contribute to efforts ban russia from the global table and boost russia’s accountability for crimes committed in the war by individual countries that have assumed the right to apply “universal jurisdiction” to prosecute atrocities, wherever they may take place. And then this will lead to the destruction, dissolution and dismemberment of the russian empire.

Accountability for War Crimes in Ukraine is Prerequisite for Peace

Accountability for war crimes in Ukraine is essential for peace to return to Ukraine and everyone responsible should be held accountable, including russian president putin, observed President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, reported Ukrinform.

According to Ukrainian government sources as well as the United Nations and other global agencies, russia has perpetrated war crimes in Ukraine since its war began 12 months ago. The United States, among other countries, also believes russia is guilty of crimes against humanity, a higher level of heinous international illegalities. The list of crimes perpetrated by russian regulars as well as cutthroats in russian uniforms is long and shocking by any standards, and includes murder and rape of unarmed civilians and children as well as the destruction of living quarters and infrastructures.

Metsola said at a briefing in Lviv on Saturday morning, March 4, that when peace in Ukraine is discussed, accountability for russian war crimes must be part of the discussion. She believes that whoever is responsible for these crimes must pay. This means that if a jurisdiction for the crime of aggression is found, then a find legal means to implement it must be found, she said.

Metsola noted that during the meeting with Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin, she saw significant progress in the creation of the tribunal and very good proposals.

She said they would also meet with UN officials to make sure a mechanism is in place to collect evidence first and then prosecute. “We understand that in order to hold accountable for the crime of aggression, a Special Tribunal must be created,” she emphasized.

According to Metsola, it’s no longer a question of how to do it, but a question of when. She noted that all those responsible for the crimes should be held accountable, including putin, because without this peace would not return.

“And this is the fundamental reason why I am here today,” she added.

Ukraine President Zelenskyy has pledged that his country will further strengthen its relationship with the International Criminal Court.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin and all his accomplices must receive lawful and fair sentences,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv has registered more than 70,000 russian war crimes committed in Ukraine, reported EuroNews.

This position must be carved in stone by all free world countries and international organizations seeking peace in Ukraine.

While in Lviv, Metsola met with Zelenskyy and promised him that cooperation between Kyiv and the EU parliament would “only grow stronger.” She expressed hope that Ukraine would be allowed to begin European Union membership negotiations this year. Brussels granted Kyiv formal candidate status in June of last year. It had applied just days after russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, but the matter has evaporated since then.

In a Twitter post, Metsola praised Ukrainians as the “brave people who inspired the world” … “who sacrificed everything for our values.”

Zelenskyy also took to social media to thank Metsola for her “leadership in supporting Ukraine from the start of the war.”

Ukraine’s 10-point Peace & Victory Plan

Ukraine’s road to peace with triumph and honor.

A year after russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan is again in the news and on the agenda of the United Nations. Though russia certainly opposes it, its tenets are nothing more than any self-respecting, sovereign, independent country would demand for itself.
The proposal was first enunciated by Zelenskyy last fall. Zelenskyy insisted he is seeking a just end to the russian war in Ukraine and he wanted to talk about the plan to achieve it publicly.
Zelenskyy has also been saying that Ukraine will not be forced to reach compromises in the pursuit of what Ukraine considers a just peace. The comment came in the wake of push from the broader world to Ukraine to focus on peace.
“Ukraine should not be offered to conclude compromises with its conscience, sovereignty, territory and independence. We respect the rules and we are people of our word,” said the Ukrainian president.
He further said that he suspected that Russia might use any peace as a ruse to re-equip its forces and launch an attack later as they have done in the past.
“Apparently, one cannot trust Russia's words, and there will be no Minsks-3, which Russia would violate immediately after signing. If there are no concrete actions to restore peace, it means that Russia simply wants to deceive all of you again, deceive the world and freeze the war just when its defeats have become particularly notable. We will not allow Russia to wait it out, build up its forces, and then start a new series of terror and global destabilization,” said Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy’s 10 points that he believes would bring peace to war-torn Ukraine:
1. Nuclear safety
Russia has repeatedly threatened the use of nuclear weapons through the war. Moreover, russians occupy Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, and shelling in and around Zaporizhzhia has frequently disrupted the plant's functioning, such as blowing out its power supply, which have repeated raised questions over its safe operations and fears of a nuclear disaster.
“Russia has turned our Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant into a radioactive bomb that can explode at any moment...Therefore, Russia must immediately withdraw all its militants from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The station must be immediately transferred to the control of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agencies] and the Ukrainian personnel,” said Zelenskyy.
2. Food security
The conflict in Ukraine has disrupted world food supplies and has plunged the world in food insecurity as russia and Ukraine together are among the largest wheat suppliers to the world.
russia and belarus are also some of the largest fertilizer suppliers. The war and a blockade of sea exports has affected food production elsewhere.
3. Energy security
Russia has frequently hit Ukrainian power stations among other critical infrastructure units throughout the war, plunging parts of Ukraine into darkness repeatedly.
“About 40 per cent of our energy infrastructure were destroyed by the strikes of russian missiles and Iranian drones used by the occupiers. Every week, russia blows up our power plants, transformers, and electricity supply lines,” said Zelenskyy.
4. Release of prisoners
Zelenskyy listed that all prisoners and detainees must be released. Zelenskyy said thousands of people and around 11,000 children have been forcibly taken to russia during the war.
“Apart from the children, whose data we know, there are tens of thousands of those who were forcibly deported and about whom we know only indirectly. Among them are many, whose parents were killed by russian strikes, and now they are being held in the state that murdered them,” said Zelenskyy.
5. Restoration of territories
Zelenskyy said that occupied territories must be returned to Ukraine under United Nations norms.
“russia must reaffirm the territorial integrity of Ukraine within the framework of the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the applicable international legally binding documents,” said Zelenskyy.
6. Cessation of hostilities, military withdrawal
Zelenskyy said there must be “real and complete” cessation of hostilities.
7. Justice
Ukraine has long produced evidence of war crimes by russians, covering mass executions, sexual crimes, gendered violence, child abuse, etc. Moreover, russia has attacked civilian houses and public infrastructure throughout the war. Zelenskyy called for setting up of a tribunal for the prosecution of alleged criminals and a mechanism for the compensation for damages caused.
8. Environmental protection
Large swathes of land has been burnt by fighting and contaminated with explosives through the war. Zelenskyy said this should stop. “Millions of hectares of forest were burned by shelling. Almost two hundred thousand hectares of our land are contaminated with unexploded mines and shells...We must also find common responses to all environmental threats created by the war,” said Zelenskyy.
9. Prevention of escalation
Zelenskyy said Ukraine requires firm assurances that there would not be any escalation of conflict.
He said Ukraine was attacked as it was not a member of any alliance. Notably, if Ukraine would have been a member of NATO, then the collective defense clause of NATO would have meant that all the countries of the alliance, including the United States, would have come to military aid of Ukraine.
We need effective security assurances. That is why we prepared a draft agreement – the Kyiv Security Compact, and have already presented it to partners.
“Thus, we should hold an international conference to cement the key elements of the post-war security architecture in the Euro-Atlantic space, including guarantees for Ukraine,” he said.
10. Confirmation of war’s end
Zelenskyy said a formal declaration of the end of the war would need to be signed once all of the nine steps have been taken. “When all the antiwar measures are implemented, when security and justice begin to be restored, a document confirming the end of the war should be signed by the parties. I would like to emphasize that none of the steps above can take long. A month for one step at the most. For some steps, a couple of days are enough,” said Zelenskyy.
“The more countries of the world are involved in the Peace Formula, the more countries, especially the societies of certain large, influential countries, think about how to end the war in Ukraine - with respect for our sovereignty, with just peace - the faster it will be,” the Ukrainian president noted.
However, there is one complication that will delay peace and security in the region until it is eliminated: russia.

UNGA: Russia, Leave Ukraine!
The United Nations by a vote of 141 of the 193 member-states voiced its support of a nonbinding, though largely symbolic resolution that demanded that russian invaders cease hostilities and immediately withdraw from Ukraine.
The United Nations General Assembly yesterday, February 23, reiterated “its demand that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, and calls for a cessation of hostilities.”
Furthermore, the assembly reaffirmed “its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters.”
While the resolution is nonbinding, meaning there is no enforcement behind it, it is a significant expression of the global body’s sense of disapproval of #moscow’s brutal aggression against Ukraine that began in earnest 12 months ago today. However, a 73 percent sign of support tells international community that UN member-states loudly oppose russia’s criminal, bloody belligerence.
This is not the first time that the UNGA endorsed such an anti-russian resolution. In the recent past it denounced russia for invading and illegally seizing Crimea in a wholly fabricated referendum.
Citing the principles of the UN Charter as the premise for their resolution, the member-states called on all countries of the world and specifically in this case russia to “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations, and to settle their international disputes by peaceful means.” 
The assembly also reaffirmed that “no territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal,” which includes temporarily occupied Crimea.
The assembly said it deplores the “dire human rights and humanitarian consequences of the aggression” by russia against Ukraine, including the continuous attacks against critical infrastructure across Ukraine “with devastating consequences for civilians, and expressing grave concern at the high number of civilian casualties, including women and children, the number of internally displaced persons and refugees in need of humanitarian assistance, and violations and abuses committed against children.” 
As a result if its inhuman brutality, russia is regarded as a war criminal and perpetrator of crimes against humanity, the highest level of global illegality.
The UNGA called for the “complete exchange of prisoners of war, the release of all unlawfully detained persons and the return of all internees and of civilians forcibly transferred and deported, including children,” of which the numbers are in excess of 6,000.
The member-states also demanded an “immediate cessation of the attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine and any deliberate attacks on civilian objects, including those that are residences, schools and hospitals.”
The necessary condemnations of russia’s illegal and bloody actions against Ukraine have again been presented for all to see. What remains to do is what the free world did in 1939 against Nazi Germany and Hitler.