I understand what war crimes are, but surely there is a difference between committing a war crime and observing a video of an alleged war crime.
I don’t want to assume you are trolling because what type of sick f.ck would troll on an issue like this but it is clear that you are going to keep pushing this so I am going to put a very basic description of what I understand to be the content of the video behind spoilers. All the normal trigger warnings apply and then some.
Spoiler:
Video of what is purported to be a Russian soldier (that may or may not have been identified) raping a Ukrainian baby or toddler.
As such the event is a war crime, the filming is a crime, the dissemination of the video is a crime and the viewing of the video is a crime in most countries.
Edited for clarity
I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list if that’s still in the works
Article is paywalled and in German. Are Germans really going to be ok with continuing to buy Russian gas and block arms to Ukraine?
If Europe sent one euro's worth of equipment to Ukraine for every euro sent to Russia for gas, oil and coal, Ukraine would have a very real chance of victory.
This is a really important point.
Sending military equipment and other strategic stuff like tractors is fine and interesting.
But the West is still funding Russia's crimes against humanity by paying them for oil and gas.
It seems to me that ordinary Ukrainians are expected to make huge sacrifices, but Western governments are really dragging their feet with anything that might inconvenience their own voters.
We know cutting oil and gas imminently is necessary anyway (see yet another alarming IPCC report this week - fossil fuels are killing way more people than Putin), and we also know that we're funding this war and many other atrocities. But the focus of discussion is constantly shifted elsewhere.
Western sanctions should include fossil fuels. No exceptions. Deal with the fallout (no pun intended) as it arises, but sustainably rather than just funding a different psychopath. Hopefully that's a slightly easier sell once spring comes, but at least from here in Portugal it seems tragic that we're all still funding this barbarity because of failures by our own governments.
Germany's refusal to reactivate/prolong the life of existing reactors is particularly indefensible. Though it might take a year or so to get reactors back online, building gas infrastructure to avoid dependance on Russia takes time, too, and unlike that approach, reactivating/maintaining reactors cuts out the carbon cost, and the geopolitical worries that they would just be transferring their dependence to a different tyrannical petrostate.
Most of the gas on Germany is used for industrial process heat or space heating, so even if they used no gas fired electricity generators they’d still need gas to stop people freezing in winter. You can’t flip to heat pumps and electrical process heat in a time scale less than a decade.
Given they are where they are, what would be the best use of resources you propose to spend on getting end of life nukes working again (which will probably take more than a year)? Would you be better off throwing them crash programs for household insulation to drastically reduce the need for that gas in the first place.
I've moved some posts to the pit which I deemed to be, frankly, not the sort of discussion I want to see here. Possibly they might get moved to quarantine if the mods decide to.
Sending military equipment and other strategic stuff like tractors is fine and interesting.
But the West is still funding Russia's crimes against humanity by paying them for oil and gas.
It seems to me that ordinary Ukrainians are expected to make huge sacrifices, but Western governments are really dragging their feet with anything that might inconvenience their own voters.
We know cutting oil and gas imminently is necessary anyway (see yet another alarming IPCC report this week - fossil fuels are killing way more people than Putin), and we also know that we're funding this war and many other atrocities. But the focus of discussion is constantly shifted elsewhere.
Western sanctions should include fossil fuels. No exceptions. Deal with the fallout (no pun intended) as it arises, but sustainably rather than just funding a different psychopath. Hopefully that's a slightly easier sell once spring comes, but at least from here in Portugal it seems tragic that we're all still funding this barbarity because of failures by our own governments.
Germany's refusal to reactivate/prolong the life of existing reactors is particularly indefensible. Though it might take a year or so to get reactors back online, building gas infrastructure to avoid dependance on Russia takes time, too, and unlike that approach, reactivating/maintaining reactors cuts out the carbon cost, and the geopolitical worries that they would just be transferring their dependence to a different tyrannical petrostate.
Most of the gas on Germany is used for industrial process heat or space heating, so even if they used no gas fired electricity generators they’d still need gas to stop people freezing in winter. You can’t flip to heat pumps and electrical process heat in a time scale less than a decade.
Given they are where they are, what would be the best use of resources you propose to spend on getting end of life nukes working again (which will probably take more than a year)? Would you be better off throwing them crash programs for household insulation to drastically reduce the need for that gas in the first place.
At the risk of getting Germany is, at present, not planning on phasing out coal until the end of the decade. Those reactors - unlike renewable+storage methods - are a proven way of generating consisten power that is available within a year or so. The vast majority of the cost of those reactors - carbon cost, financial cost, externalities like radioactivity - have already been paid. Yes, they absolutely should cancel planned shutdowns and revive reactors. Last opinion poll I saw shows a majority of Germans now favour that approach, so perhaps there is hope.
These reactors were shut down due to incredibly stupid scaremongering from greens - and Germany has the nerve to complain about Belgium running nuclear power plants when pollution from German coal burning kills people outside of europe every year.
For the avoidance of doubt, though, I'm grateful for the original warning.
Believe me. I had no idea that the original warning would stimulate post after post of debate as it seemed quite straightforward. Thanks for moving the posts.
I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list if that’s still in the works
It should not have generated such debate. I honestly hope the war crime trials come. But I am concerned they won’t.
I find it utterly frustrating in other forums seeing Americans bang in about The Hague when they wouldn’t comply with it themselves.
Yesterday’s stories regarding forced adoptions are utterly frustrating too. Today, the wave of news stories is turning to referenda. I dare say they won’t want observers but equally, the clearances mean that it is warped anyway. And the clearances in those areas started before this round of the war did.
It should not have generated such debate. I honestly hope the war crime trials come. But I am concerned they won’t.
I find it utterly frustrating in other forums seeing Americans bang in about The Hague when they wouldn’t comply with it themselves.
Yesterday’s stories regarding forced adoptions are utterly frustrating too. Today, the wave of news stories is turning to referenda. I dare say they won’t want observers but equally, the clearances mean that it is warped anyway. And the clearances in those areas started before this round of the war did.
Forcibly transferring children of one group to another group has been recognised as genocide since 1948.
So Elon wants us all to think he just donated all these terminals and the Internet service to Ukraine, but actually the US is paying him a higher than market price for many of them. No one seems to want to discuss the terms.
He talks about putting pressure on the Russians to get back to the bargaining table. He is right, but doesn't say what kinds of pressure will be needed to do so.
We have to apply political pressure on Russia and support the public pressure that’s there in Russia to end this war and to withdraw the Russian forces. And we should go back to the original agreements relating to Ukraine that were made in the Budapest and the later Minsk agreement, which was designed to bring about a long-term ceasefire. All wars end with a political solution. All wars end with dialogue. Why don’t we cut out the fighting zone and go straight into the talking zone?
Putin was promoted into office with the support of Tony Blair and some other Western leaders, and he was welcomed in the West with a state visit to Britain at that very time that the Chechen War was going on. The appalling loss of life of Chechen people and of Russian people, the abuse of the human rights of the Chechen people, and the racism toward Chechens in Moscow and other cities was palpable. I was part of an All-Party delegation to Moscow with the parliamentary human rights group. We met many Russian officials complaining about the abuse of human rights and indeed, with Tony Benn, I was part of a public demonstration, a march through London in support of the rights of Chechen people. At the time of the awful event in Salisbury, I said that it was the Tory Party in Britain that had received a great deal of money from Russian oligarchs and that we should be looking at the question of Russian money in Britain.
There is no solution in Ukraine, which involves a war with Russia. What it involves is getting peace to get the Russian forces out of Ukraine. But an attack on Russia isn’t going to bring about peace. It’s going to bring about a worse situation and another war and more bitterness and hatred and more of the world’s precious resources taken up in manufacturing arms and weapons of mass destruction, rather than dealing with the environmental crisis that everyone faces.
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
Separately, 20 Su-27 fighters and Su-24 front-line naval aviation bombers conducted planned combat training overnight, simulating attacks on low-speed air and ground targets, command posts and military equipment in Kaliningrad, Interfax said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned European countries on Wednesday against any potential action against the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, saying "this would be playing with fire."
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
And there is only one country that could do that, by pulling back all their forces into Russia. Ukrainians defending themselves against invasion and death squads aren’t the ones who need to deescalate.
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
And there is only one country that could do that, by pulling back all their forces into Russia. Ukrainians defending themselves against invasion and death squads aren’t the ones who need to deescalate.
Oh, I agree.
But the West has to stop provoking them. It is just too dangerous right now.
Masking forever
Putin is a monster.
Russian socialism will rise again
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
And there is only one country that could do that, by pulling back all their forces into Russia. Ukrainians defending themselves against invasion and death squads aren’t the ones who need to deescalate.
Oh, I agree.
But the West has to stop provoking them. It is just too dangerous right now.
Yeah. Shooting back when he’s trying to kill you is so provocative.
I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list if that’s still in the works
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
And there is only one country that could do that, by pulling back all their forces into Russia. Ukrainians defending themselves against invasion and death squads aren’t the ones who need to deescalate.
Oh, I agree.
But the West has to stop provoking them. It is just too dangerous right now.
Should the west stop arming the Ukraine Russia won’t stop and go home. They will push in as far as they can, flattening cities and have death squads murdering all and sundry. We aren’t poking the bear, the bear is a rabid beast that will still try to take your head off whether you are playing nice or not.
This is not the fault of the West, Ukraine or anyone else apart from Putin and his supporters.
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
And there is only one country that could do that, by pulling back all their forces into Russia. Ukrainians defending themselves against invasion and death squads aren’t the ones who need to deescalate.
Oh, I agree.
But the West has to stop provoking them. It is just too dangerous right now.
Don't be naive. The Invasion wasn't because of provocation. It was because of power hunger.
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
And there is only one country that could do that, by pulling back all their forces into Russia. Ukrainians defending themselves against invasion and death squads aren’t the ones who need to deescalate.
Meanwhile Russia is staging War Games in Kaliningrad. I thought most of their Army was tied up in Ukraine.
I wonder what they are planning? This whole situation really needs de-escalating.
And there is only one country that could do that, by pulling back all their forces into Russia. Ukrainians defending themselves against invasion and death squads aren’t the ones who need to deescalate.
Getting back to Jezza's editorial, how does the West convince Russia to bargain in good faith?
There isn't going to be an unconditional surrender like WW2, there will be no march on Moscow.
It seems they are more intent on total war now, than they were a couple of weeks ago.
What kind of pressure can be put on Moscow? Sanctions obviously are not working.
They sound more hyped up and bloodthirsty every day.
Masking forever
Putin is a monster.
Russian socialism will rise again
