Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, mainstream media have very frequently been reporting on war crimes committed by the Russian side. Furthermore, as the National Prosecutor Dariusz Barski reported in February of this year, Polish prosecutors are investigating the assault war and its war crimes. any 1,700 witnesses have already been questioned, and the material in this case is being forwarded to the global Criminal Court in The Hague.
I am not going to defend Russia or approve of the decision to launch a peculiar military operation in Ukraine. I believe that this decision was a mistake, and Russia was drawn into a trap which was provoked by the Anglo-Saxon states (US and UK) – straight curious in expanding its spheres of influence and destablizing the political situation in Central and east Europe. I besides do not intend to negate the war crimes that are committed beyond our east border. It's only a pity that only the crimes of 1 organization to the conflict are publicized. This is despite the fact that, according to the UN advanced Commissioner for Human Rights Report, the crimes occurred on both the Russian and Ukrainian sides on the basis of interviews with about 400 POWs. It's about killings, torture, or the usage of prisoners as live shields during action on the front. Among another things, the study mentions the execution of at least 25 Russian prisoners of war, which occurred in March 2022 in the Lugansk Oblast (Rzeczpospolita: "UN study condemns the killing of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war" – 24.03.2023).
This place is worth going back a fewer years. It is May 2014. The situation in Ukraine is highly tense. The consequence of events in Majdan and the overthrow of democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovych is the annexation of Crimea and the uprising of Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic. In the east of Ukraine there are mass protests, riots and armed clashes. On May 2, 2014, in Odessa, there is an armed attack by extremist militias of the Right Sector and football supporters on the union building. The attackers first attack antimaidan activists in front of the building and then set fire to the building itself, resulting in 48 deaths. In addition, nearly 250 people were injured as a consequence of this criminal attack. Of course, the events described took place long before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, for which the date of February 24, 2022 is officially accepted. However, many analysts believe that the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was the events of Majdan and the coup then carried out, which yet led to a full-scale war.
Why do I remind you of these tragic events? Not to defend 1 side in the ongoing war. I am simply referring to the hypocrisy of politicians and journalists in our country, representing the conflict in Ukraine in black and white. The massacre in Odessa was carefully overlooked in mainstream media as it did not fit the authoritative political narrative, according to which only Russians commit crimes and acts of genocide. Well, any people think if the facts don't match the theory, the worse for the facts...
The crimes committed deserve to be condemned regardless of nationality, religion or political views of their perpetrators. It should besides be recalled that the states who present accuse Russia of war crimes have not themselves accounted for their own past. Ukraine has not yet considered the Volyn massacre to be an act of genocide, and the United States has not considered the atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be a crime against humanity.
Michał Radzikowski
