War crimes in Eastern Europe: to believe Ukraine or Russia?

“Since the beginning of the war we have recorded more than 4,000 military crimes, war crimes”, declared this Tuesday the 5th the attorney general of UkraineIryna Venediktova. And that they had not yet verified the figures of Mariúpol and Bucha, devastated in recent days by the action of Russia.

Only in the region of Kyivsays the Government of Volodymyr Zelensky1,200 war crimes were documented.

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Ukraine is not the only one investigating the attacks against human rights in the midst of the invasion that began Moscow on February 24. The prosecution of the International Criminal Court enabled a portal so that witnesses can “provide evidence of war crimes or crimes against humanity”, which shows how difficult it is to document these acts.

For his part, the kremlin denies the accusations. For example, about Bucha -a city they recently abandoned, leaving hundreds of bodies buried in mass graves-, Russia has said that “not a single local resident suffered violent actions” while occupying the territory.

On the contrary, they maintain, it must be remembered that the “Ukrainian forces bombarded the city 24 hours a day with large-caliber artillery, tanks and multiple launch rocket systems”.

Who to believe?

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Kharkiv under Russian siege. Firefighters try to put out the fires. EFE (ROMAN PILIPEY/)

“The first problem of a war is the lack of a single objective version. Both Russia and Ukraine, as well as all the countries that have ever been involved in a conflict, will always have versions that fit what they want to show. That fog of war prevents that truth from being observed by a third party”.

This is the opinion of analyst Carlos Novoa, who does not doubt that war crimes have been committed in this war, but encourages questioning the figures.

“The situation in Ukraine improved from the beginning of the war because Russia was unable to completely dominate it. kyiv never fell. The blows have been so strong that now they need to show the figures of the crimes that occurred”.

“The The issue is that Russia also has its point of view regarding, for example, the Ukrainian nationalists. That is, there is no single version. You have to doubt everything, although if we had to compare, obviously the Russians violated more human rights.”.

Because knowing that Moscow’s hand does not tremble when manipulating information does not make what kyiv said true. The situation is complicated when both sides (the West vs. Russia) close sources of information that go against their ideas.

In any case, Novoa considers that the war crimes attributed to Vladimir Putin could bring him serious problems. “He has raised the breakdown of economic stability and his actions caused a high number of deaths. Consequently, it can be expected that in order to maintain power it will have to be more authoritarian”.

“The heavy hand added to information that will surely not be to the liking of public opinion, can cost you a lot inside Russia. People who are within the environment of power could take advantage of the situation”.

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A woman walks carrying food in a residential area of ​​Bucha, a town near kyiv that was bombed by Russian forces. EFE (OLEG PETRASYUK/)

War crimes in the 21st century

Murder or mistreatment of prisoners of war, civilians or shipwrecked. Deportation to force the civilian population into forced labor in occupied territories. Genocides against the population. Taking and execution of hostages. Unjustified destruction or devastation of populations. Theft of public or private property. These are some of the actions that the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) understood as war crimes.

That is, those actions that violate the “people not involved in the fighting and those unable to continue fighting, including civilians such as doctors and nurses, wounded soldiers and prisoners of war”, can be qualified in that way.

In the XXI century there are examples.

Between 2003 and 2010, in Darfur (Sudan) there was a war led by Omar al-Bashir -president who was later overthrown-. The president’s actions caused “around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced”, according to France 24.

There is also the war in Yemen, which broke out in 2015 and whose situation is getting worse with each passing day, according to UNHCR. Currently, more than 20 million people need humanitarian aid, there are 4.2 million displaced people, and 7.4 million who need nutritional assistance.

UNHCR writes:

“Insecurity is spreading in what has been classified as a humanitarian catastrophe: poverty, misery, mass displacement, shelters at their maximum capacity, thousands of civilian deaths and diseases such as cholera threaten its inhabitants.”.

And you cannot ignore the war in Syria, which “has left half homeless” of the population.

EFE brings up the report presented by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission for Syriawhich documented with more than eight thousand interviews to the 3,200 “alleged perpetrators of war crimes and other abuses”. The agency writes:

“The 31-page document concludes that since March 2011 the civilian population has suffered abuses that in some cases constitute ‘war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other international crimes, including genocide’”.

“It is also reported that over ten years of conflict at least 38 attacks with chemical weapons have been detected, of which it was proven that at least 32 were the work of the Syrian government forces and one of the Islamic State.”.

In the case of the war between Ukraine and Russia, we will have to wait for the results of the investigations of international organizations to know the truth.

Source: Elcomercio