2022: HOLD MY TEA! šŸµ

What is your point?

Um, reporting a thing?

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I do not mind that. My posts are usually aimed to help those that want to find the relative information and want to judge for themselves :slight_smile:

By the way, in this case, 693 mass murdered civilians is not a personal anecdote, but historical facts, ok?
You can be flippant about other things, but I do not think that such a grave issue is something that you should dismiss as if it never happened or it is not important.

Well, I was trying to be brief and not overquote this time, but even if this is so, this is like attempting to rob someone while wielding an A4 paper with the word ā€œknifeā€ on it. Any two-bit robber or mugger would tell you that it does not work :slight_smile:

That’s even less effective, but I will not bore you with why that is so. All the above should be enough, should you attempt to read through the new data and reconsider the matter.

Unfortunately that is very true :confused:
Ever since the wars became a media show, things really went downhill on how people understand and percieve warfare … and considering that traditionally war was always a fiesta of propaganda in the first place (ā€œThe biggest lies are told over hunting and warā€ Metternich iirc, died in 19th century), that really made serious things of life and death importance, into something akin to a movie set.

The ridiculous graphics on ā€œnewsā€ broadcasts do not help either. :roll_eyes: They make it look like a game, for God’s sake :confused:

Another example on how this whole attacking civilians ā€œideaā€ - which is now on worldwide news - does not create panic or loss of morale to the side of the victims, but does generate rage and increase of morale.

For me it goes to show that we should be focused on the real disaster of war, which is the dead and displaced people, as well as their totally destroyed lives and homes. I am very worried about our attention span and that, sadly, once this war gets out of the news cycle, those people will be left alone, to fend for themselves in the rubble. :frowning:

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OK. I found this a helpful facts-based explanation about the Azov batallion.

Thanks for the sources you shared. I’ve bookmarked the post for future reference.

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As I said, reporting a thing. It happened, I posted it. Whoever can’t possibly entertain the idea that life is messy, to put it simply, isn’t my problem.

I do not appreciate the ā€œwhat is the point of posting thisā€, that honestly came across like ā€œwe don’t say bad things about Ukraine here, behaveā€ or the patronizing ā€œhere, educate yourself about Azovā€.

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If you would like a suggestion, if you want facts, try to find videos and sources as far before the war as possible. Once a war begins, unfortunately, facts are very hard to find and it is always a ā€œyou said, they saidā€ kind of thing between the sides involved.

If you scroll this topic you will find posts discussing these issues and containing various such things, from good reliable sources like the UN and university professors and even news broadcasts before the war.

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I really wanted to know what your point was, that’s why I asked. Just posting a video clip without any context does not say very much and is not very helpful. The video I shared wasn’t just for you, I shared it because I found it informative, as I said.

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Me too. :wink: That was not my point. Of course people are responsible for their actions and should face consequences for them. And I personally believe that you could prevent this from happening by changing some things about your military (e.g. by making it more diverse, among other things), but it’s probably more convenient for leaders to have military structures as they currently (usually, but not everywhere) are, with mostly young men who have learned to blindly follow orders and who mostly don’t question things too much (on average, I mean - not all of them). So in the end, their leaders are still mainly responsible, I think.

I just wanted to say that these are important factors that should not be overlooked, and that the violence against civilians is, sadly, nothing unexpected, because things like these happen in (almost?) every war.

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I purposefully didn’t want to expand on context, it’s in the title what it’s about.

Not everything we post is a statement. And it doesn’t have to be.

About the video on Azov, I read too much in your second reply then, I apologize.

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Gruesome reports and images (I will not post them here) from Bucha and other reclaimed Ukrainian territories may trigger a new round of EU + UK sanctions. The German defence minister calls to discuss including a ban on import of Russian oil and gas (which Germany was very reluctant to do up to now, because of its heavy dependence).
The Russian defence minister claims that those reports and images are fake(ā€œstagedā€) and calls them a provocation.

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To be fair, this is not a page listing war crimes committed by Russians, it’s a list of war crimes committed during the current war. There’s war crimes from Ukranian side on that page as well (although in the minority).

And as one is supposed to know, Wikipedia is biased and inaccurate, especially with current-day events. Sadly, nobody currently has any knowledge where the truth lies…

Nevertheless, it is a lot harder to explain war crimes committed by Russian people on Ukrainian territory against Ukrainians (soldier or not), than to explain war crimes committed by Ukrainian people on Ukrainian territory against Russian soldiers.

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Not in hindsight, but definitely contemporarily.

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This is one of the things that disinformation and propaganda try to achieve, muddy the waters and generate so many doubts that no-one knows what to believe any more. This is why pro-Kremlin narrative denies and issues counter-accusations all the time.

Historical evidence is valuable but has its own problems. Recent evidence is preferable where available - HRW is asking people to preserve bodies and treat sites of alleged war crimes like the crime scenes that they are.

I don’t buy this. There are plenty of Ukrainians who have lost their homes and their loved ones. They are sharing photos and videos showing harrowing scenes of death and destruction every day. How would you feel if this was happening in your country and people safe many miles away were casting doubt on your testimony because the invading army is trying to deny and cover up their crimes?

While it is true that the Ukrainian army may have also commited war crimes (I’m referring to the incident in the dairy, which is being investigated), the vast majority of the war crimes can be attributed to the invading Russian army and in due course there will be international investigations and trials.

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I don’t deny that there is obviously something going on. I’m trying to put some nuance to the picture that within the context of propaganda, it is very hard to verify information, and that a news source that is edited by community is hardly going to be accurate or unbiased (in either direction).

It is hardly possible to judge the scale of what is going from small-scale photos. 25 pictures of atrocities means there are at least 25 atrocities that happened somewhere (under the assumption that the pictures aren’t staged or photoshopped), but what is the actual number? Do the pictures form a complete image, or are there a thousandfold more of such pictures left unphotographed? Are the pictures taken at the place claimed, or at the time claimed? Journalists are struggling with these questions on a daily basis, even despite that effort, there have been several provably false images / stories of the war spread in various news sources, some of which reputable of being accurate and usually with a track record of unbiased claims. It’s not to say that all or most footage (claimed to be) from the war in Ukraine is fake, but it is very important to realise that whatever you read can be biased and that things are hard to verify, even if the source means well or is dependable.

To add: my main gripe with Wikipedia as a news source, as compared to traditional media, is that it requires substantial effort to find out who wrote what you’re reading. Traditional (biased) media is better, relatively, since at least the source (and hence the bias) is known.

You don’t buy that nobody knows where the truth lies, i.e. you believe that someone knows exactly what is happening currently?

It seems you want to say that you don’t buy that most of the claims on Wikipedia are false, which is something I don’t buy either (although I’m not completely sure, I fear propaganda from either side quite a lot). But I definitely don’t buy that all claims on Wikipedia are truth.

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Many countries have their far right extremists that are hardly disguized neo nazis. That includes Western countries, Ukraine and Russia. In some countries they even form armed militias that are a real danger.

But they are not in power in Ukraine. It’s a fake justification of the invasion.

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It was a bit more nuanced than what you sketch, but I can confirm that there has been news about nazism and Ukraine before the war started.

But, I would say that there was about the same level of news about nazism and other European countries, including NATO countries and Russia itself. It’s a problem broader than just Ukraine.

Also, it doesn’t justify invading a country.

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It seems @gennan and I have the same news sources :stuck_out_tongue:

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And although the EU is trying hard to support Ukraine’s struggle to preserve its sovereignty, I don’t think the EU suddenly forgot that Ukraine has issues.

If this war somehow ends with Ukraine still being a sovereign state wishing to join the EU, it will still take major reforms to meet the criteria for EU membership.

Even as is, the EU already has issues with some EU states slipping in regard to democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of press, corruption, rule of law, etc.

Rushing to give Ukraine EU membership, without meeting EU criteria, would not be good for the stability of the EU.

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Ukraine has a neonazi problem.

We have a pushback problem*

I wonder how many people would say ā€œah, Greeks harbor racist border patrols who behave horribly to refugees, eh, let them have itā€ if for example Turkey (… or USA) decided to invade us with that pretext.

*and a neonazi problem, but I digress

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