JRL NEWSWATCH: “Many Ukrainians see Putin’s invasion as a continuation of Stalin’s genocide” – Atlantic Council/ Kristina Hook

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“… [F]or most Ukrainians, the main factor fueling their determination … is the sense that Russia’s genocidal objectives leave them … no choice …. Either Ukrainians defend themselves, or Ukraine … will cease to exist. Examples of the Russian military’s genocidal conduct … and the Kremlin’s genocidal intent continue to mount. … [H]uman rights investigators have released new evidence accusing […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Murder, torture, rape: Russia’s crimes are a long-running horror show” – Washington Post

European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

“… [E]vidence attesting to Russia[n] atrocities in Ukraine … represents a small fraction measured against the likely scale of atrocities …. Notwithstanding the … accounts detailing systematic torture, rape, execution and other forms of abuse … independent investigators are denied access to territory seized by Russian forces. … [T]he Kremlin’s commanders have time to eliminate traces of physical evidence as […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s Smoking Guns: How to Prove the Putin Regime’s War Crimes in Ukraine” – Foreign Affairs/ Janine di Giovanni

File Photos of Law Books and Gavel, adapted from image at fjc.gov

“… [The] Ukraine … conflict has involved horrific atrocities, many … extensively recorded in real time …. [U]nlike in Syria and other recent wars, these crimes are being documented with the explicit aim of amassing evidence that can be used in courts. Since the war began, dozens of investigative journalists have been trained to become war crimes researchers, gathering images, […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “How Putin’s War Became Russia’s War; The Country Will Struggle to Reckon With Its Crimes in Ukraine” – Foreign Affairs

Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

“… Putin’s war against Ukraine has become the defining event of his years in power. Even if he rules for another quarter century, Russia’s president will forever be considered a war criminal. But the consequences of the war are even more far-reaching: it promises to leave a stain on Russian society and politics that will remain even after Putin is […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Nova Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine: Ten guidelines for writing about catastrophe” – Timothy Snyder

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“1. Avoid [bothsidesing] this manmade humanitarian and ecological catastrophe …. 2. Russian spokespersons claiming … Ukraine did something … is not … [describing] the real world. … * * *  5. [If citing Russian propaganda, include considerations of what has been said inside Russia itself.] … Russian propagandists have … long argu[ed] [in favor of blowing up] Ukrainian dams … […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Why the War Will Continue: One year in, the war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending.” – Council on Foreign Relations/ Richard Haass

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“… Putin’s calculation that the benefits of invading would dwarf the costs became a formula for disaster. Putin now finds himself playing for time. Unable to defeat Ukraine’s military, he is attacking economic and civilian targets, hoping to break the will of Ukrainians. … [and perhaps hoping that] European governments … [and] the U.S.[] rethink the costs of supporting Ukraine. […]

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After Ukraine-Russia Prisoner Swap, Can Zelenskiy Capitalize On Momentum?

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Christopher Miller- KYIV, Sept. 7, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/after-ukraine-russia-prisoner-swap-can-zelenskiy-capitalize-on-momentum-/30151851.html) “Our guys are home.” As those words were shared by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on September 7, the Ukrainian nation simultaneously celebrated and breathed a collective sigh of relief upon learning that 35 of their compatriots […]

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Debates in the West about Putin Now Recall Those in Europe about Hitler in Mid-1930s, Ikhlov Says

Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, December 15, 2016) There has been a dramatic increase in the influence of pro-#Putin forces in the West in recent months, Yevgeny Ikhlov says; but at the same time, there has also emerged in Western societies a real horror about what the #Kremlin leader is doing in #Syria in general and in […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Russia Implicated in Shooting Down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Over Ukraine” – New York Times

Ukraine Air Crash Scene with Uniformed Security Personnel, Flames, Smoke

A Dutch-led investigation has concluded that the powerful surface-to-air missile system … used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine two years ago, killing all 298 on board, was trucked in from Russia at the request of Russian-backed separatists and returned to Russia the same night. … largely confirm[ing] the already widely documented Russian government role not only […]

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Russian Investigative Committee gives ICC data on S. Ossetia conflict crimes

Georgia Map

(Interfax – January 28, 2016) The Russian Investigative Committee has provided the International Criminal Court (ICC) with the files of a criminal case opened into the crimes committed during the 2008 armed conflict in South Ossetia, Investigative Committee director Alexander Bastrykin has said. “The Investigative Committee of Russia conducted a thorough investigation into the crimes committed by the Georgian military,” […]

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