The ICC Declares Bucha A Crime Scene
The morgues are packed, body bags have run out, and bodies are buried unidentified
This is Holy Week, yet the world is witnessing a war that can only get worse. We know this, yet the appeasement alliances keep delivering their statements and results of their votes and meeting that amount to very little except a virtual pat on the back in the media. Yes, they have pledged funds, and to send aid and weapons but this is like helping someone who is bullied, where you stand back and watch and throw them stick to defend themselves, and then a bottle of water so that they can keep going. It simply isn’t enough and they know it, but they feel that they have done something to help.
Meanwhile, Macron is careful to say the right things and to stay neutral during the election campaign. His previous claims that he was making progress with Putin fell flat a week later, but is still pushing for a peaceful resolution. What would De Gaulle do? Somehow, I don’t think he’d approve of Macron’s tactics.
Ukraine faces many challenges still, and documenting the dead is a task that no one wants. Relatives search for their missing family members, bodies are buried without being identified because there is no room to store them, some bodies are beyond identification and fingerprints are taken. It is heartbreaking to read the accounts, and also to know this will be happening in many towns and villages in Ukraine, and that more deaths will follow.
It is beyond me that the institutions that we have, such as the UN and NATO have turned out to be useless on a practical level, and are political pawns where movers used the positions to elevate their careers. Perhaps Putin knew and saw this and took advantage of it, knowing that NATO preferred appeasement and negotiations, and the UN simply like to keep calling meetings and to hold votes?
Everyone is concerned about Mariupol. The Russians have been smoking them out, and have now even sent in their own photographer to post images of their ‘victory’, and that their soldiers have taken control of the city. The concerns are for the soldiers that may get captured, and used for propaganda? There are of course prisoner swaps where Zelenskyy has offered Viktor Medvedchuk in exchange for civilian prisoners. Russia have distanced themselves from Medvedchuk who was seen as a Putin ally, stating he is a Ukrainian citizen and politician (as in he is nothing to do with us).
The death toll in Mariupol is in the tens of thousands, and yet people are still trapped there and cannot evacuate. Politicians make mistakes, and when we look at history we can see the mistakes made, but when the mistakes are pointed out to them in real time, can that be forgiven? Deaths have occurred to these errors of judgment, and the alliances that we have relied on to keep the peace for the past 70 years have proven to be little more than window dressing. The West has let Mariupol down—they must not let the rest of Ukraine down.
Day 49 (13 April)
The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia visit Kyiv and Zelenskyy today as an act of solidarity. The German president (Steinmeier) was informed he was not welcome sue to his previous ties with Putin, and in his place the Chancellor (Scholz) was invited and will visit instead.
Russia is trying to censor Ukrainian journalists reporting on the war by flagging their Twitter accounts and getting them suspended. Several accounts have been suspended when they discuss pro-Ukrainian issues, and it seems that the Russians are behind this to systematically prevent news from the front line being posted in the public domain.
Finland is opening up a national debate on NATO membership, to enable the government to evaluate the defences in place in light of recent events. This means a decision can be made within weeks rather than in months.
Finland and Sweden hold a joint press conference on how each country will work with their neighbours to assess the security of their territories. This is in light of both countries seeking NATO membership. The Kremlin has previously stated that Ukraine’s desire to join NATO was a factor in Russian deciding to invade the country.
Ukraine says it is too dangerous to open up humanitarian corridors due to Russian attacks. The Russians never agreed to a ceasefire, and leaving Kyiv was an empty gesture.
Macron has made controversial comments, rejecting the recent atrocities in Ukraine as genocide and calling the Russians and Ukrainians ‘brothers’. If he is trying to appease the electorate, I’m not sure he read the room correctly because tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been tortured, targeted and murdered.
The Russians have been busy creating fake news, including a fake BBC News report claiming that the Bucha massacre is fake news. The BBC have stated that the clip that has been circulated is fake and they had never produced the material.
The ICC states that Ukraine is a ‘crime scene’ as ICC investigators begin work in Bucha. The problem is that Russia does not recognize the ICC, thus it eliminates the chances of any successful prosecution.
NATO is keen to appear that they have mounted defence lines on land, sea, and by air. A little too late, and they don’t appear to have worked as the Russians know they are training exercises and don’t see the action as a deterrent.
"Perhaps Putin knew and saw this and took advantage of it, knowing that NATO preferred appeasement and negotiations, and the UN simply like to keep calling meetings and to hold votes?" I agree, EL. I believe Putin recognized this likely response from these agencies after his actions with the Crimea, when nothing was done to him then, and just bided his time and made plans for his current attack, waiting for the time he felt was best to strike. IMO, I suspect Putin figured it would be a 'cake walk' to surprise attack Ukraine when he did and come out victorious with minimal fighting. I still also believe that part of his reasoning was that he did not expect Zelenskyy to rally the country as he has done and continues to do. At this point, withdrawing and conceding defeat is not an option for Putin, which means that the Big 3 (NATO, EU, and UN) truly need to get their acts together and actually work to help physically defeat the Russian troops/Putin before Ukraine is completely decimated and Putin moves on to other countries knowing no one is going to stop him with only words as their arsenal.