{"id":78550,"date":"2023-03-23T15:25:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T04:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=78550"},"modified":"2023-03-23T15:24:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T04:24:46","slug":"russian-troops-cruelty-goes-far-beyond-the-laws-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/russian-troops-cruelty-goes-far-beyond-the-laws-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian troops\u2019 cruelty goes far beyond the laws of war"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The extent of the cruelty displayed by Russia\u2019s invaders has shocked the people of Ukraine and deepened their determination to fight for their nation\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n

Galyna Mykhailiuk, a member of Ukraine\u2019s parliament and a highly qualified lawyer, tells The Strategist<\/em> the Russians have used rape of civilians and prisoners, and other forms of unlawful violence, as weapons in a process of dehumanisation.<\/p>\n

While war is always terrible, the Russian crimes are beyond belief, she says.<\/p>\n

Mykhailiuk is heading a delegation of MPs who have come to Canberra to deliver a message of thanks to the government and people of Australia for the help they\u2019ve provided to the Ukrainian forces fighting a much more powerful adversary. \u2018Our Ukrainian armed forces do count on Australian support. For us, it\u2019s very important to express our gratitude to Australia citizens, to the parliament, the government of Australia personally, face to face, for all the support that was provided to Ukraine, military, financial and humanitarian.<\/p>\n

\u2018We survived, thanks to not only the bravery of Ukrainian soldiers, but also the support provided by our international allies. Australia proved to be a very reliable ally in a dark period of Ukrainian history. You helped us to preserve our freedom, independence and democracy. Hopefully this year will be victorious for Ukraine.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mykhailiuk says her country\u2019s forces will soon take the offensive against the Russians. Her delegation wants Australia to send some of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine. \u2018If Australia can join the tank coalition, it will be highly important for us.\u2019<\/p>\n

She says that despite civilian and military casualties, morale remains high. \u2018We realise that we don\u2019t have any other choice except to win this war.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mykhailiuk says Ukrainians have been appalled by the Russian military\u2019s tactics. \u2018It\u2019s beyond belief that they can be so cruel,\u2019 she says. \u2018We did not expect that they could do such things. They use everything as a weapon\u2014rape as a weapon, energy as a weapon, cold as a weapon.\u2019 It\u2019s impossible, she says to understand how this can be done by a country in 21st-century Europe.<\/p>\n

In one of many episodes Mykhailiuk recounts, a four-year-old girl and her mother were raped in front of the father.<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019ve raped men, and even women aged over 80. They want Ukrainian women to feel such fear that they\u2019ll never again give birth to a child, that they\u2019d rather commit suicide than carry this burden.\u2019 Many women in the Ukrainian army would rather be killed in battle than surrender to the Russians because they know they\u2019re likely to be tortured, Mykhailiuk says.<\/p>\n

Areas liberated from Russian forces have been heavily mined and hundreds of Ukrainian civilians have been killed by exploding mines, Mykhailiuk says. \u2018They put mines everywhere, even into kids\u2019 toys. When people go back to their apartments and open the door there might be explosion, or they open the door of their fridge, there might be an explosion, or when they start their car.\u2019 The same applies to farmers\u2019 fields, she says. Everything must be screened.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s estimated that about 1,000 children have been killed in the war, many hit by Russian missile strikes and gunfire. A further 16,000 Ukrainian children are believed to have been kidnapped and taken to Russia. Mykhailiuk says the Russian Federation has enacted a law allowing Russians to adopt such children even if they have parents alive in Ukraine. \u2018We don\u2019t know how they are being treated,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is pleading with the European Parliament and the governments of European and other nations for help to set up a specialised international organisation to help it get the children back.<\/p>\n

\u2018For an occupier and invader to kidnap children is against any international law.\u2019<\/p>\n

If Russia wins and occupies Ukraine, it will quickly round up members of the government, she says. \u2018As an MP, my home addresses and the addresses of my parents and my family are out there. They know where to find us. If Russia occupies my homeland, they will come for my parents, for my family and they will torture, rape and blackmail. That\u2019s why we don\u2019t have any other option than to have a free Ukraine. It\u2019s win or die. That\u2019s it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Some of the language emerging in this war has morphed from Ukraine\u2019s past. Mykhailiuk talks of the front lines as \u2018point zero\u2019. That\u2019s where hell is happening, she says. People ask their loved ones in the forces, \u2018How many kilometres are you from point zero?\u2019<\/p>\n

The Bayraktar TB2<\/a> is a Turkish-manufactured armed drone used to great effect by Ukrainian forces to destroy Russian tanks and vehicles. Bayraktar, says Mykhailiuk, has become a common name for boys born in Ukraine since the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

The American-made Javelin shoulder-launched anti-tank missile<\/a> has been dubbed by many of those fighting the Russians \u2018Saint Javelin, protector of Ukraine\u2019. Since the Russian invasion, many girls have been christened Javelina.<\/p>\n

She says Russia has failed in its threats to carry out a major military offensive to capture Ukraine. Its troops targeted the small city of Bakhmut in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk but had not been able to take it. \u2018There\u2019s a myth,\u2019 says Mykhailiuk, \u2018that Russia has the world\u2019s second most powerful army. But we\u2019ve cracked this myth.\u2019<\/p>\n

At the same time, Iranian drones provided to Russia have done a lot of damage, and it\u2019s of concern that some Chinese spare parts have been found in Russian weapons, she says.<\/p>\n

The cost on Ukraine has been high. In one terrible week in January, Mykhailiuk lost seven of her friends to the conflict. She says some of Ukraine\u2019s bravest soldiers \u2018are already in heaven\u2019, but the nation will fight until the Russians are driven out of all of the country including Crimea. There will be no peace in Ukraine as long as Russia holds the strategically positioned peninsula.<\/p>\n

If Ukraine surrenders, then Russia will invade Poland and the Baltic countries, Mykhailiuk says. \u2018We don\u2019t have any choice: we have to win.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The extent of the cruelty displayed by Russia\u2019s invaders has shocked the people of Ukraine and deepened their determination to fight for their nation\u2019s survival. Galyna Mykhailiuk, a member of Ukraine\u2019s parliament and a highly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":78552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[372,493,163,714,2406],"class_list":["post-78550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-civilian-casualties","tag-international-law","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-war","dinkus-russia-ukraine-war"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRussian troops\u2019 cruelty goes far beyond the laws of war | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/russian-troops-cruelty-goes-far-beyond-the-laws-of-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russian troops\u2019 cruelty goes far beyond the laws of war | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The extent of the cruelty displayed by Russia\u2019s invaders has shocked the people of Ukraine and deepened their determination to fight for their nation\u2019s survival. Galyna Mykhailiuk, a member of Ukraine\u2019s parliament and a highly ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/russian-troops-cruelty-goes-far-beyond-the-laws-of-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-23T04:25:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-23T04:24:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1471890291.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brendan Nicholson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Jerry Cashman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brendan Nicholson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/russian-troops-cruelty-goes-far-beyond-the-laws-of-war\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1471890291.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1471890291.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"TRUDOLIUBIVKA, UKRAINE - MARCH 1: Dasha, 8 years old, local resident, stands in agricultural field next to a projectile that no one wants to touch; the villagers are waiting for sappers from the State Emergency Service to remove a shell on March 1, 2023 in Trudoliubivka, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. 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