The war zone of Donbas saw many bloody days. But what happened near the frontline town of Zaitseve in Donetsk Oblast on July 13 was especially outrageous.
A group of Ukrainian servicepersons of the 35th Marine Brigade were sent into between the lines to recover the body of a Ukrainian fighter who had been killed during a scout mission earlier in the day. Both sides agreed to observe the state of full cease-fire during the operation, and the Ukrainians were wearing white helmets.
Yet, as the group approached the body, the militants unleashed a hail of fire. One Ukrainian was killed on the spot, and two other injured. The group had to retreat under heavy fire, and the two dead bodies were left behind.
Soon, the community identified the killed marine, a battlefield medic of the ill-fated group. His name was Nikolay Ilyin, and he was an Estonian citizen of Belarusian origins serving with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
One doesn’t have to be an expert in laws of war to know that Russian-backed militants committed a war crime. This was yet another instance of the Kremlin’s dirty warfare in Donbas, the long list of which includes the execution of prisoners of war, indiscriminate bombing of humanitarian infrastructure, and hiding behind densely populated residential areas in combat.
It took the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nearly 24 hours to come up with a public reaction. His office rolled out a weak, toothless statement decrying “illegal armed formations” for the murder.
The statement does its best to avoid mentioning Russia — the mastermind behind this unsubstantiated war, which is commanding and supplying its
40,000-strong occupation force in Donbas. Instead, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief talks about “the other side of the front line” and “gray criminal enclaves,” which “destabilize the situation.”
It appears that Zelensky administration tries to appease the Kremlin in the wake of ongoing, doubtfully promising Normandy Format talks with Russia regarding the peace in Donbas.
What’s notable, Ukraine’s foreign allies do not hesitate calling things by their names. Following the incident, the U. S. Embassy in Kyiv delivered a statement saying that they “join the people of Ukraine in condemning the ongoing, brutal aggression of Russia-led forces in Donbas.”
How come that Ukraine’s wartime leader avoids accusing Russia, as distinct from our allies?
The president’s disregard toward the everyday tragedy of war goes far beyond this single incident. Right on the next day after the Zaitseve war crime, on July 14, the Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square in Kyiv saw a mourning ceremony bidding last farewell to Junior Lieutenant Taras Matviyiv, who had been killed in action in Donbas, having saved two of his brothers in arms.
Despite being present in Kyiv, Zelensky failed to find several minutes of his time and pay respects to the fallen officer. The golden star of the Hero of Ukraine was handed over to Matviyiv’s father by Defense Minister Andriy Taran — not the president of the country for the sake of which his son sacrificed his young life.
This needs to change — or else we don’t have a wartime leader.
(c) KyivPost
“This needs to change — or else we don’t have a wartime leader.”
A leader full stop would be a start, instead of a grovelling Putin appeaser who is ready to sell Ukraine down the river to keep his popularity.
That is a terrible tragedy and of course yet another war crime. The use of weasel words like ‘militants’ or ‘Russia-backed separatists’ by any Ukrainian politician or journalist should result In imprisonment for assisting in the enemy’s war effort.
If such despicable war crimes don’t upset him as much as a Poroshenko speech, it is going to be a very tough 4 more years coming for Ukraine.
Indeed so redders. As I understand it, despite the chicom bat virus and yet another economic hit as a consequence, the putler murder gang still fully operational and filthy fifth columnists still operating freely, Ukr civil society is calm. What admirable and stoical people the Ukrainians must be!
They have a wonderful spice of humor with a pinch of hope that gets them through day to day life.
Great people. After what they and Georgia have been through they need to be super close with each other.
Some stinking putinoid turd in the DT wrote some bollocks about ‘Russia was only defending itself from EU interference’ in 2014. So I decided to explain why he was wrong and summarizing the crimes inflicted upon Ukraine by Russia:-
‘You appear to be endorsing the invasion and occupation in 2014 of two large chunks of previously undisputed sovereign Ukrainian territory which killed 15,000, mainly civilians and continues to kill Ukrainian defenders at the rate of one per day for the past six and a half years. Consider the following : Ukraine suffered 360 years of Russian occupation, the ‘highlights’ of which include numerous anti-Jewish pogroms, several planned and systematic genocides including the Holodomor in the 1930’s which killed upwards of four million, the torture and murder of intellectuals, professionals and dissidents and the constant forced ‘Russification’ of people who are not and never were Russian.
In addition, during the German occupation, almost half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust were Ukrainian and almost half the entire soviet civilian and military losses were Ukrainian.
In spite of all the death and misery inflicted over centuries upon Ukraine by Russia, it turned out that Ukraine’s independence was conditional upon them having a puppet ruler who was entirely subservient to Russia. Your attitude is similar to that of the fat kid who, having seen a smaller kid beaten up by bullies, decides to land a few kicks on him while he’s on the ground.’
‘
Very appropriate, good job Sir Scradge.