Russia brands Ukrainian steel plant defenders terrorists

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SUSIE BLANN and SUZAN FRASER

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Ukraine’s Azov Regiment a terrorist organization, a designation that could lead to terror charges against some of the captured fighters who made their last stand inside Mariupol’s shattered steel plant.

Scores of Azov fighters are being held by Moscow since their surrender in mid-May. Russian authorities have opened criminal cases against them, accusing them of killing civilians. The addition of terrorism charges could mean even longer prison sentences.

In a statement, the Azov Regiment dismissed the high court ruling, accusing Russia of “looking for new excuses and explanations for its war crimes.” It urged the U.S. and other countries to declare Russia a terrorist state.

The Azov soldiers played a key part in the defense of Mariupol, holding out for weeks at the southern port city’s steel mill despite punishing attacks from Russian forces. Ukraine’s president hailed them and other defenders at the plant as heroes.



A journalist watches as the bulk carrier Razoni starts its way from the port in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. According to Ukraine's Ministry of Infrastructure, the ship under Sierra Leone's flag is carrying 26 thousand tons of Ukrainian corn to Lebanon. The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain set off from the port of Odesa on Monday under an internationally brokered deal and is expected to reach Istanbul on Tuesday, where it will be inspected, before being allowed to proceed. (AP Photo/Michael Shtekel)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-weather-1ea97857904db4d34d43fd54c1a9baf4

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. Russia (Putin) is just bound and determined to maintain its pariah status in the world. nt.

[IronLionZion]

2. People defending their own country from a foreign army trying to kill them

[LiberalLovinLug]

3. And its the defenders who they are "accusing them of killing civilians"????

What a sick sick mind.

And many sick minds that follow Putin.

Yet NATO and the west just dare non accuse Russia of being a terrorist state. Nor help them anymore than incremental supplies of mostly outdated ww2 tanks and short range missile systems.

Is NATO truly going to just watch this slow destruction of an entire nation, and its democracy, take place on its doorstep? When its finally all in rubble, Zelensky and his wife and kids are shot, and the concentration camps are being set up, will THAT be finally enough?

[Turbineguy]

4. Sure. I think Hitler did the same thing

with the defenders of Stalingrad.

[quakerboy]

5. Oh My

huh. I wonder what that would imply about the status of the Russians that arent even in the borders of their own country, killing folks?

[EndlessWire]

6. Prelude to executions?

Life is so much easier when you brand POWs as dirty terrorists. It makes what you do under cover of law cleaner and nicer. No explanations needed.

I don't care if they have Nazi tats. I wish they didn't, but that doesn't change them from POWs. So, Putin invades a neighboring country, whose citizens fight like hell against the invaders, and now the prisoners are terrorists? Excuse me, who are the terrorists?

I'd say, have Ukraine brand all their own prisoners as terrorists, but that won't do any good, and it wouldn't be true, anyway. Instead, I would urge Ukraine to complain to the UN about the status of their captured soldiers, and the ludicrous criminal trials that Russia wants to hold against the surrendered soldiers. Trials will make everything so much more difficult to solve at war's end.

The whole thing is so mixed up. Russia is killing hundreds and hundreds of civilians in a country that is not theirs on the flimsiest of pretenses. The whole world knows what they are doing. And, Ukraine is not even allowed to attack beyond their own borders. So, Russia gets to cart off thousands of civilians, and label POWs as terrorists, all to win a war that they started. It's an alternate universe, for sure.

I think it would really be worth it to address the UN and get some jabs in there. Get it on record. There's lots to say. POWs are covered by the Geneva Convention.

[SunSeeker]

7. Why hasn't Russia been declared a terrorist state yet? nt

[robodruid1]

8. Because we don't want to have to deal with the logical conclusions.

"doing something" would be expensive and hard.

There would have to be a draft.