Atrocities in Ukraine War Have Deep Roots in Russian Military

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

The New York Times
@nytimes
Violence remains commonplace within the Russian military, where more senior soldiers routinely abuse junior ones. Experts say that violence, coupled with a lack of independent oversight, makes war crimes against Ukrainians more possible.

Tetiana Petrovna reacted in horror in a garden where Roman Havryliuk, his brother Serhiy Dukhli and an unidentified victim were found on April 4 in Bucha, Ukraine.
nytimes.com

Atrocities in Ukraine War Have Deep Roots in Russian Military
Like the shelling of cities, the seemingly pointless, close-up killing of individuals recalls wars in Chechnya. Do they reflect intent, or only indifference, propaganda and a military culture of...
12:55 PM · Apr 17, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/17/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-atrocities.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/CxThr


*snip*


“It is the state of the Russian army, this impunity, aggression and internal violence, that is expressed in these conditions,” Mr. Krivenko said in a phone interview. “If there were to be an uprising in Voronezh” — a city in western Russia — “and the army were called in, the soldiers would behave exactly the same way.”

But the crimes in Ukraine may also stem from the Kremlin’s years of dehumanizing propaganda against Ukrainians, which soldiers consume in required viewings. Russian conscripts, a sample schedule available on the Russian Defense Ministry’s website shows, must sit through “informational television programs” from 9 to 9:40 p.m. every day but Sunday. The message that they are fighting “Nazis” — as their forefathers did in World War II — is now being spread through the military, Russian news reports show.

In one video distributed by the Defense Ministry, a marine commander, Maj. Aleksei Shabulin, says his grandfather “chased fascist scum through the forests” during and after World War II, referring to Ukrainian independence fighters who at one point collaborated with Nazi Germany.
“Now I am gloriously continuing this tradition; now my time has come,” Major Shabulin says. “I will not disgrace my great-grandfather and will go to the end.”

That propaganda also primed Russian soldiers not to expect much resistance to the invasion — after all, the Kremlin’s narrative went, people in Ukraine had been subjugated by the West and were awaiting liberation by their Russian brethren. Mr. Krivenko, the soldiers’ rights advocate, said he had spoken directly to a Russian soldier who called his group’s hotline and recounted that even when his unit was ordered into Ukraine from Belarus, it was not made clear that the soldiers were about to enter a war zone.

*snip*

[elleng]

1. 'the crimes in Ukraine may also stem from the Kremlin's years of dehumanizing propaganda

against Ukrainians, which soldiers consume in required viewings. Russian conscripts, a sample schedule available on the Russian Defense Ministry’s website shows, must sit through “informational television programs” from 9 to 9:40 p.m. every day but Sunday.'

[Hekate]

2. There was an article posted several weeks ago about Russian training in brutality. Can't find it now

Last edited Sun Apr 17, 2022, 08:13 PM - Edit history (1)

…which is irksome, because I could have sworn I bookmarked it.

The point of the article was that Russian recruits are routinely brutalized — not “hazed,” but tortured and raped — by earlier enlistees. Officers turn a blind eye — officers do it as well. They really seem not to care if X number are killed or maimed or crippled. It’s all part of the military culture, and how a real Russian soldier is created.

After you read this or similar you will never countenance a false equivalence between theirs and ours. We were shocked at what occurred at Abu Ghraib and hoped to hold someone accountable. It was horrible to think our people could have done this. I don’t think Russians would be shocked at all.

All I could say was: “It explains a lot about the nature of the war crimes in Ukraine.”

Found it. Links in next post.

[Hekate]

3. Dedovshchina, or the "rule of grandfathers," ...

Last edited Thu Mar 16, 2023, 12:49 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216563534

https://www.vice.com/en/article/gqdx44/full-v13n4



Note for later

About the Russian military:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216563534

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216603609