Not really. They have brought the usual Russian murder, looting, and vast destruction to peaceful cities in Ukraine.
And then they try to burn the evidence, like they did to this family.
What does Russia have to gain by killing bound civilians? If the Russians were carpet bombing cities and depopulating Ukraine…I might believe it. But they have been quite restrained in their mission.
The news paints it as policy to slay all live people—it states that Putin himself came and shot them, laughing as they fell. This smacks of Propaganda BUT—it could be true. Maybe these Ukrainians were fighting Russians, feeding them poison or other thing—the soldiers snapped and took out their rage upon prisoners—possible. There is much we do not know and may never know. War is hell. This is done to get Americans to put boots on the ground and save Ukraine—that or a No Fly Zone over that land—and shoot down the Russian air force. War is good for the Democratic Party and business.
Not really. They have brought the usual Russian murder, looting, and vast destruction to peaceful cities in Ukraine.
And then they try to burn the evidence, like they did to this family.
Per top of the page:
“And let’s be clear – the Ukrainian narrative of the events in Bucha seems to stretch credibility...”
If the very consistent Ukrainian narrative stretches credibility, then the constantly redefined Russian narrative shatters credibility.
Russia has gone from telling its people that Ukraine had no defensive clout beyond the 8000 Nazis in Azov in the Donbass, to bombing cities in the west of Ukraine and destabilising Chernobyl because, er, all those mothers with kids and those nuclear plant safety workers are Nazis???
Originally Nazis were just Azov and other active Nazi groups. Now, anyone of any age who feels more Ukrainian or European than they feel Russian is a Nazi too. Native Russian speakers were the victims of Ukrainian oppression in February; today they’re the enemy if they are not pro invasion.
What does Russia have to gain? Ye gods! Its simple.
This war is not, never has been, and will never be, about “protecting” even Russian civilians let alone Ukrainian ones.
Russia is only after the raw resources in Ukraine. It absolutely doesn’t want the Ukrainian people, their distinctive culture, their art or their separate national identity to survive.
Show me one quote from the Kremlin propaganda in the last five years where they’ve had anything positive to say about their neighbor.
Putin hates Ukrainian EVERYTHING.
Russia only pretends it cares about Russian speakers in Ukraine so that useful idiots ger drawn into pathetic comparisons between the 5% of Uke troops pre invasion that might’ve been connected to nasty Azov Bandera folks and aren’t Russian speakers, and the 95% that were perfectly happy to be Ukrainians with many Russian ties who can speak both languages but don’t fancy being pulled back into a new USSR.
Russian action is completely consistent with an occupying NAZI force on the orders of a NAZI leader that is after the LEBENSRAUM not the UNTERMENSCH plays the “if you scum even look at us the wrong way we’ll kill a hundred of you” card.
The counter narrative that Ukraine has thousands of sucidal crisis actors, millions of Nazis (including kids now), and the capability to bomb Mariupol into rubble despite having no bombs or bombers and fewer than 5,000 professional Nazi boots on the ground... THAT is the sort of narrative that stretches credibility to breaking point.
“What does Russia have to gain by killing bound civilians? ... But they have been quite restrained in their mission.”
An invading army that has suffered serious setbacks, and begins to retreat, often takes out its frustration and anger on the nearest available target, and the more defenseless, the better. They vent. So, atrocities are committed against the local population. This is not at all uncommon in war. Retreating armies are unusually brutal towards the civilians of an enemy territory. History is full of examples.