Image for representation only
As Russia's unilateral onslaught on Ukraine continues unabated, news coming in from Kiev shocks human conscience. Negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian authorities have so far been futile. Except for limited corridors being facilitated for refugees who decided to leave Ukraine, there has not been any let up in burning of civilian facilities, or bombing of institutions and refineries. There are no indications that US and European sanctions have deterred Vladimir Putin a bit. Russia's plan to swallow Ukraine all at once has gone awry. While it is true that the war came at a heavier price for Russia than expected, it must be acknowledged that Russia continues to succeed in affording material benefit to friendly countries like India by selling oil and other goods at liberal terms. Ukraine, on the other hand, has so far not failed in holding in check the super power despite its heroic defence. But beyond all this, the eyes of the world are wet with the terrible misery of ordinary human beings who have lost their lives, money and dignity. Not only Ukrainian authorities, but also various media outlets reported that the bodies of civilians brutally murdered were left on the city's empty streets when Russian forces finally retreated after an unsuccessful attempt to seize the capital, Kiev. 410 bodies were confirmed to have been found in Kiev, Bucha and surrounding areas. Ukraine has released footage of unarmed civilians with their hands tied behind back and being shot in the head. There is also a significant number of women who were brutally raped at gunpoint. Ukraine accuses Russian military of massacring people and abusing women.
Naturally, the Putin administration's take is that this is all a blatant lie and a false propaganda by Ukraine. Even otherwise, we never have instances of invading powers ever coming clean with facts. US President Joe Biden has demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be tried as a war criminal for his role in Russia's atrocities against civilians in Bucha. Biden has no doubt that Putin is a war criminal, but he also says more details need to be compiled to prosecute Putin as a war criminal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called civilian deaths as racist attacks. The Prime Minister of Poland has also called for an international inquiry into racist attacks. Another US demand is that Russia be expelled from the UN Human Rights Council. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' reaction that he was shocked by Bucha's sights, also refutes Russia's claim that all allegations were lies. Anyway, the fact that more than 40 million citizens have already left Ukraine can never be a lie.
History has shown that the hands of those who ruled Russia from the time of the Tsar emperors to the present day were not clean and that homicide and stubbornness were inherent in their blood. The atrocities committed against humanity by rulers from Joseph Stalin to Brezhnev during their rule of the USSR for decades - during and after the Russian revolution - are well-established facts, no matter however much they deny it. Now Vladimir Putin, primarily a capitalist dictator, is following the same tradition; the word humanity has no place in their dictionary. But when we ask what moral right the United States and its allies have to question this, we will have no answer. Can the world forget the misdeeds that Joe Biden's predecessors staged in Iraq and Afghanistan on the back of pure lies? Is it not the dark history of his adversaries that gives Putin the courage to move forward with contumacy? The fact is that neither the United States nor Russia is a member of the International Criminal Court, and that both the nations have a record hitherto of vetoing any resolution that they do not like. That being so, the demand of Biden for war crimes trial can hardly be anything more than mere propaganda. In a world without any one who can throw a stone, other than sinners, the wish for justice and fair play is destined to remain a mere delusion.