Evil Incarnate . . . Live from Ukraine

"This is not war. It is psychological torture, so Zelensky will finally understand who we are." Told to a Ukrainian woman, while she was enduring sexual violence by a Russian soldier (France24)

Winning a major battle against a much larger foe is usually a reason to celebrate, as in the successful defense of Kyiv against Russian forces. On March 31st, after about five weeks of fighting, Russian ground forces began their pullback from their positions north of Kyiv. Now known as the Battle of Kyiv, it is seen as a decisive victory for Ukraine.

Any idea of celebrating a difficult victory was quickly dispelled by discoveries of mass graves and bodies of Ukrainian civilians on street corners and in the streets, some bound and gagged. In the three weeks since the Russian army left the area around Kyiv, the body count is well over one-thousand individuals, of which about eighty per cent of the deceased were shot.

Ukrainian survivors are coming forth and some are telling their stories. Any and every evil was perpetrated on the Ukrainians under Russian control. Nothing was taboo, from pederasty and pedophilia, to mass rape, torture, and cold-blooded murder.

Survivors not only lost their homes, their cars and their livelihoods, but were stripped of any and all vestiges of their humanity. Several days after the Russians left, Ryan Hendrickson, a former Green Beret, and author of Tip of the Spear, was in Bucha to distribute food. On April 8th he did a live online interview with Team House. Hendrickson?said he had never seen such destruction any where in his entire military career. A Ukrainian lady told Hendrickson?she had to bury her son in the park where the food distribution was taking place, but only after she has received permission from the local commander, and only after she waited three more days. The surviving Ukrainians are in shell shock, said Hendrickson. "They are just ghosts. They are blank."

"One of the parts of (the) war,?I guess, that bothers me probably deeper than anything else, are the rapes."

Ryan Hendrickson, in Bucha, Ukraine

There are over five-thousand documented Russian war crimes, at last count, in Bucha and surrounding areas. Like many crimes that are never reported, many Ukrainian victims of Russian sexual violence feel reluctant to report it. The experience has left them with feelings of disgust and self-loathing. Some are considering suicide, according to the Swiss journalist?Maurine Mercier, and we may never know how many suicides will result from their victimization.

Others are telling their stories. Of being victimized at gunpoint. Of being victimized in front of their children. Of seeing their children victimized. Of being victimized after witnessing their husband being killed. One woman's husband asked, "You wouldn't shoot a fellow Russian, would you?" before he executed by the Russians at his door, looking for his wife.

Connecting the Dots

True to Putin's pre-invasion declarations on the morning of the invasion, Putin's plans called for contingencies for resistance, as "consequences never seen before, on any nation."

Such declarations, according to Dr. Robert Hogan, are a cautious type of a "free-floating threat," part and parcel to a strategy of manipulation. Putin is telling the world, "Do what I want, or bad things will happen."

Bad things are happening in Ukraine, anywhere Russian troops are billeted or encamped. But this really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

As far back as 2012, Sergey Fridinsky, Chief Military Prosecutor of Russia, warned of an uptick in crime and corruption within the Russian military. Crimes like murder, theft, and drug peddling, among others, were on the increase, said Fridinsky. Many new Russian recruits, perhaps as many as two-thirds of Russian conscripts, are forced to work in outside enterprises, with the proceeds going to their higher-ups. Within a year of releasing his report, Fridinsky had "resigned" from his job.

The Russian army is a corrupt institution, led by a corrupt politician. As such, the Russian army operates without normal rules or boundaries. The Russian army does not follow the rules of war or the laws of war, understandings embodied in documents such as the Geneva Convention or protocols of international humanitarian law.

That doesn't make the Russian army any less deadly, at least in its illegal attacks on civilians, first responders, and Ukrainians who refuse to be victimized. The only recourse for Ukraine is to push out Putin's evil army as expeditiously as possible. Any other outcome is unthinkable. ■