Once again, the West uses a double standard with Russia: humanitarian crimes of Ukraine’s armed forces are downplayed, while provocations and incidents are blamed on Russia as tragedies.
Yet another tragic event
The 352nd Infantry Unit of the Navy of the Russian Federation found a basement in the recently liberated resort of Russkoye Porechnoe filled with the corpses of innocent pensioners. They had been tied up; on their corpses were signs of torture of all kinds. The peaceful residents of Russkoye Porechnoe are just the latest, striking victims of NATO-funded Nazi-fascist terrorism. The images of the discovery are chilling: these poor people were tortured and their bodies vilified and outraged.
In Sudzha, Kurks, a school that had been turned into a detention camp for Russian prisoners within the Kursk region still in the hands of the Ukrainian army, was hit. Up to 100 people are feared to be under the rubble.
Ukrainians claim the college was allegedly hit by the Russian air force with a guided aerial bomb. Zelensky tweeted on X: “This is how Russia makes war: Sudzha, Kursk region, Russian territory, a boarding school with civilians preparing to evacuate. Russian aerial bomb. They destroyed the building even though there were dozens of civilians.”
The Russians claim, however, that the area was attacked by four HIMARS missiles from the Sumy region. The Russian argument is that the Ukrainian army is losing ground in the Russian region of Sudzha and needed to erase the traces of crimes committed there.
The use of crimes against civilians during a war as a tool to provoke the opponent is a brutal and cynical tactic adopted by various forces throughout history to destabilize the enemy, exacerbate the conflict and manipulate public opinion. And Ukraine seems to really like this strategy, which is based on the deliberate use of violence against innocent populations with the aim of gaining political, military or propaganda advantages.
One of the main purposes of this tactic is to provoke an emotional and disproportionate reaction from the opponent. Targeted attacks on civilians, bombings of residential areas, massacres or other human rights violations can prompt the enemy to respond with equally brutal actions, thus fueling a spiral of violence that makes war even more vicious. Moreover, these provocations can lead to retaliation that legitimizes in the eyes of the public further military offensives, justified as “necessary responses” to the atrocities suffered.
The other goal is to influence international perceptions of the conflict. The actors involved may exploit the narrative of war crimes to gain diplomatic support, military or economic aid. In some cases, atrocities committed are exaggerated or manipulated to blame the adversary and justify certain operations. The dissemination of images and testimonies, amplified by the media and social networks, can create pressure on foreign governments to take a stand or impose sanctions.
The use of violence against civilians can also aim to demoralize the enemy, breaking their will to fight. If a population lives in constant terror of indiscriminate attacks, it may push its government or armed forces to seek a peace agreement or truce to avoid further suffering. In this sense, terror becomes a psychological weapon aimed at undermining the opponent’s resistance.
Hellbound and Down 