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Nevilledog

(51,092 posts)
Tue Mar 8, 2022, 09:34 PM Mar 2022

The Syrian White Helmets are ready to help Ukraine



Tweet text:

Ali Rogin
@AliRogin
·
Mar 8, 2022
.@joshrogin talked to the leader of Syria's Civil Defense (White Helmets), who hadchilling advice for Ukrainians: "Do not give GPS locations of medical facilities to the U.N., which may claim it needs the information to keep them safe. The Russians will use that information"

Ali Rogin
@AliRogin
Link:

washingtonpost.com
Opinion | The Syrian White Helmets are ready to help Ukraine
Syrians have spent the past seven years learning how to survive Russia's brutal tactics.
12:57 PM · Mar 8, 2022


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/08/syria-white-helmets-want-to-help-ukraine-against-russian-military/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/HHTCn

As Russian President Vladimir Putin expands his murderous attacks on civilians across Ukraine, regular citizens are becoming front-line troops. Syrians, who have been facing Russian military attacks for seven years, are ready to help Ukrainians organize their first responders. Ukrainians will need all the help they can get to save as many innocent lives as possible in what could be a long struggle.

Since 2015, when Putin dispatched his troops to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad maintain his hold on power, the Russian military has been attacking civilians in opposition-held areas, reportedly committing war crimes on a regular basis by targeting hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure. Those tactics are now being used in several Ukrainian cities, complete with attacks on fleeing families and credible reports of illegal weapons such as cluster bombs. Last week, the International Criminal Court said it would “immediately proceed” with an investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

The Syrian Civil Defense force, known as the White Helmets, has been working to rescue, evacuate and give emergency care to civilians under attack since 2014. The all-volunteer force says it has saved more than 100,000 civilian lives and that at least 252 of its members have been killed in the process. Now, the White Helmets are turning their attention to Putin’s latest victims.

“We are here to help our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in any way we can,” Raed Al Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, told me in an interview. Putin’s goal is to break the will of the civilian population, he said, and there are no limits to the savagery of his troops. “The Russian military has no principles. They respect no human rights. They have no standards or ethics,” Saleh said. “The Ukrainians are facing the most ferocious, unethical, criminal killing machine that exists in the world today, which we have been facing for the last seven years.”

*snip*


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The Syrian White Helmets are ready to help Ukraine (Original Post) Nevilledog Mar 2022 OP
Putin bdamomma Mar 2022 #1
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