Holding the tyrant of Belarus legally accountable as a partner to the war, as seen in Donbass attack by Russia in tandem to his people's contempt
The head of Belarus, Putin's partner in crime, Lukashenko , is legally an accessory to the blood toll on Ukraine as can be seen in the first article . Mainly, the unacceptable assault on Donbass, as stated in the second article, would not have been possible, on the scale now in progress, had Lukashenko been neutral, or barred Putin's military an assault venue from Belarus . Every death in Bucha, can be materially laid at the doorstep of Lukashenko, and if there is a tactical nuke unleashed in Southern- Eastern Ukraine, the blame for the train of events leading to that assault needs to be jointly shared by Lukashenko and Putin. Doing such will spread far and wide the message that those who treat Slavic people like dirt, to be swept away for the benefits of Oligarch's have no way to run from it, the responsibility. In addition each dead Russian soldier who died due to thievery initiated by Russian Mafia thievery from the Russian military is also a victim in this monstrous war.
What Putin and Lukashenko wish to do is to jointly strut around May 9th, in vindication of the jointly shared oppression of their people, and to keep in place the Russian Mafia stealing from Russia, Belarus and conquered sections of Ukraine, for their joint benefit . All this thievery makes it imperative that NATO, the Western powers in EU and America do NOT fight to "the last Ukrainian " in this miserable war, because each day of delay means unacceptable losses due to Russian Mafia Kapos unleashed upon nearly 200 million people, Enough is enough
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/90805-lukashenko-accountable-putin-war-ukraine.html
quote
HOW LUKASHENKO CAN BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR PUTIN’S WAR IN UKRAINE
14 APRIL 2022?BY?ALEXANDRE PREZANTI, FOR JUSTICEINFO.NET
The large range of legal avenues opened by Ukraine to respond to Russia’s military aggression does not yet directly target Belarus, although it has been one of Moscow’s most needed strategic helpers. Justice and accountability efforts in relation to Russia’s war in Ukraine must recognise the crucial role played by Belarus and its authoritarian leader – Alexander Lukashenko – argues international lawyer Alexandre Prezanti.
SHARE
REPUBLISH
President Alexander Lukashenko attends joint military exercises of the Russian and Belarusian armies near Minsk, a week before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ? Maxim Guchek / Belta / AFP
4 min 3Approximate reading time
Without Belarus, Vladimir Putin would not have been able to launch his assault on Kyiv’s suburbs of Bucha, Irpin, Vorzel and Borodyanka – now scenes of unimaginable horror and devastation. In 2020, the president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made a Faustian pact with Russia’s leader Putin. The latter helped Lukashenko to hold on to power in the face of peaceful mass protests. In exchange, the former allowed Belarus to be used as a launch pad for the invasion of Ukraine. In doing so, Lukashenko made himself complicit in a war of aggression, and any attacks on civilians launched from Belarusian territory.
As Russian troops retreat from north-eastern parts of Ukraine, they leave behind evidence of blood chilling atrocities – entire towns wiped off the map, civilians executed in the streets, homes pillaged, women and girls raped and murdered.?The scenes from Bucha, beamed around the world, have prompted calls for a comprehensive war crimes probe into the conduct of Russian armed forces. But the attack on Kyiv’s suburbs and other parts of northern Ukraine would have been difficult, if not impossible, without Lukashenko’s support for Putin’s war.
LAUNCH BASE FOR TROOPS, ROCKETS AND BOMBERS
On 24 February 2022, Russian troops entered Ukraine from Crimea in the south, from Russia in the east and from Belarus in the north. Soon afterwards, military vehicles with the letter “O” – confirmed as Russian forces that had been stationed inside Belarus – appeared in Chernobyl and on the outskirts of Kyiv. Belarusian air defences, air traffic control systems and fueling stations were put under Russia’s disposal. At the same time, rockets began to rain on Ukrainian towns and key infrastructure.?Lukashenko later acknowledged?that rocket attacks had been launched from the territory of Belarus. He justified this by parroting Kremlin’s propaganda about Ukrainian biological weapons and claimed that Ukrainians and their western backers were preparing to attack Belarus.?
Whilst he has resisted sending Belarusian boots on the ground in Ukraine, Lukashenko cannot be allowed to escape his responsibility for enabling Putin’s war. According to Ukrainian authorities, in March, an estimated 230 rockets have been launched from inside Belarus – hitting various military and civilian targets in Ukraine. For example, on 14 March, Russian rockets launched from Belarus hit the village of Antopil located 15 kilometres from Rivne, a regional capital in north-western Ukraine, targeting a civilian television tower. The attack resulted?in the death of at least 19 civilians. Likewise, over 500 sorties have been launched from nine airbases in Belarus (as confirmed by NATO airspace surveillance and images?posted on social media). Some resulted in the carpet-bombing of Ukrainian cities, others were used to drop paratroopers for?ground assaults around Kyiv.
TWO OPTIONS FOR BRINGING LUKASHENKO TO TRIAL
There is no question that Belarus has played a key role in Russia’s attempt to conquer Ukraine. For this, Belarusian military and financial sectors have been hit by United States, United Kingdom and European Union sanctions. But sanctions are not strictly speaking justice or accountability. As with Putin, there are two main options for bringing Lukashenko to account over Ukraine.
The first, is to prosecute him for complicity in or facilitation of the crime of aggression. Whilst the?International Criminal Court (ICC)?is not competent to try Putin and Lukashenko for this crime – because neither Russia nor Belarus have ratified the Rome Statute, a prerequisite for prosecuting aggression at the ICC – there is talk of?establishing a new international tribunal?for this purpose. Such a tribunal would need to overcome the issue of head of state immunities, and crucially, secure support from an overwhelming majority of states to avoid being dismissed by detractors as a political show-trial. After all, at the heart of the definition of the?crime of aggression?is an inherently political determination – that the decision to go to war cannot be justified under the Charter of the United Nations.
The second option is to prosecute Lukashenko and his generals for their contribution to or facilitation of war crimes perpetrated by Russian forces. There are strong reasons to believe that in providing military bases, infrastructure, fuel, air defence and air space to the Russian forces, Belarusian authorities intentionally contributed to the commission of Russian attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, in the knowledge of the Russians’ intention to perpetrate such attacks. At the very least, Belarusian support may be qualified as aiding, abetting and otherwise assisting in the commission of deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against Ukrainian civilians. Such cases could be tried at the ICC. Alternatively, they can be prosecuted by Ukraine or by other national authorities, under the principle of?universal jurisdiction?or under jurisdiction delegated by Ukraine. However, it is important to remember that as long as Lukashenko remains in power, national prosecutions will be barred by his head of state immunity.
CHARLES TAYLOR’S PRECEDENT
To date, the ICC Prosecutor has made no mention of the role of Belarus in the situation in Ukraine. However, this does not mean that his office is ignoring Belarusian complicity. Lukashenko would not be the first foreign official indicted for complicity in a neighbour’s war. In 2012, former Liberian president?Charles Taylor was found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in Sierra Leone?by a UN-supported tribunal. Lukashenko may think that he has cunningly remained on the fence – repaying his debt to Putin without committing Belarusian troops to a war that is deeply unpopular amongst his population. But this doesn’t absolve him in the eyes of international law. As ever, the likelihood of Lukashenko’s appearance in the dock depends on our ability to document credible evidence of his involvement, prosecutorial discretion, political will and his political longevity.
end of quote
While this statement of legal responsibility is verboten, we need to keep in mind the newest attempt on the part of the Putin Russian Mafia state, to extend its domain of harassment, and of more stealing and murder for profit, See below as to Donbas getting the Lions share of attention of more NAZI style oppression, as seen below: But we cannot overlook in addition a new frontier for Kremlin Russian Mafia Looting, that being of the article which is the final companion piece to this presentation. Now we go to Donbass, as the most active frontier for more Kremlin Mafia looting
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-offensive-bears-down-on-donbas-as-west-races-to-supply-ukraine-with-more-weapons-11650455031?fbclid=IwAR1-osFAuXraECEwZo2BEsooPUi80ve2ifoJngL9AgXeYazZ-bHP-nvjh5Y
and
https://www.tamilbloggers.xyz/russian-offensive-bears-down-on-donbas-as-west-races-to-supply-more-weapons/
quote
Russian offensive bears down on Donbas as West races to supply more weapons
Byadmin
?APR 20, 2022??arms,?donbas,?Russia,?Russian forces,?ukraine,?Ukrainian defenders,?Ukrainian military,?Western nations
In the Danube port city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian forces since the end of February, the remaining Ukrainian defenders warned that time was running out and asked to be evacuated to a third country, along with the injured and civilians protected in the shrinking area during Ukrainian control. Russia has insisted on an unconditional surrender and has been pounding the Ukrainian forces – which are mostly trapped in the vast Azovstal steelworks – with artillery and air strikes.
Ukraine’s General Staff said in its Wednesday briefing that Russian forces had tried to attack the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donbas from the north and northwest, with artillery bombardments followed by investigations into weak points in the Ukrainian defense along the entire front line. After capturing the town of Kreminna over the weekend and advancing towards the villages of Torske and Zelena Dolyna, Russian forces are regrouping ahead of a renewed push towards the town of Lyman, northeast of one of the capitals of Ukrainian-held Donbas, Slovyansk, the Ukrainian military added.
Ukraine is strengthening its units in the area while trying to counterattack southeast of the city of Kharkiv in an attempt to disrupt Russia’s supply lines and cut off the forces gathered for the main offensive in the city of Izyum. Ukrainian forces have also destroyed a dam on the Oskol River, leading to flooding in the area and making roads and fields impassable to Russian armor – a tactic that Ukrainian defenders successfully deployed northwest of the capital Kyiv in March.
In the days before the war began on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk peoples’ republics, the two states cut off with Russian aid in about a third of the Donbas in 2014. Moscow considers the entire Donbas as the territory of these republics. and – after failing to conquer Kyiv in the first phase of the war – has proclaimed the “liberation” of the Donbas as its main goal.
While Russian forces have withdrawn from the northern regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy after suffering heavy casualties, they have continued to occupy most of the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, as well as much of the Kharkiv region.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second most populous city before the war began, is under daily artillery bombardment that has ravaged many neighborhoods. “The attacker is trying to intimidate us, to break our spirit – but it will fail,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Wednesday, adding that 1,929 high-rise buildings in the city have been destroyed by Russian attacks. “Shelling is becoming more widespread and crueler every day.”
Terekhov pointed out that a new development plan for London was devised in 1943, after the British capital was ravaged by Nazi bombings, and said he was now working with British architect Norman Foster on a project to rebuild Kharkiv when the war ended.
Ukrainian officials warn that the capture of Donbas is only a snack for Putin, and that his original war goal – to destroy Ukraine as an independent state – has not changed. Should Moscow succeed in encircling and destroying Ukraine’s best forces in the Donbas, it could push forward and try to take Kyiv once again, they say.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia had submitted a draft document to Ukraine with Moscow’s terms for a peace deal. “The ball is in their court, we are waiting for an answer,” Peskov told reporters without giving details.
Talks between the two sides have stalled in recent weeks and Putin has complained that Ukraine is delaying negotiations. “Ukrainians do not show any major tendency to intensify the negotiation process,” Peskov repeated on Wednesday.
Last week, Putin said peace talks with Kyiv had reached a dead end. In his first extended comments on the war since last month, Putin had said that without an agreement acceptable to the Kremlin, Russian forces would continue their offensive.
In the ongoing battle for the Donbas, Ukraine possesses a fraction of the artillery and armor that Russia has deployed on the front lines. Moscow also has an overwhelming advantage in aviation, by using jet fighters, rifle helicopters and armed drones. It fires dozens of cruise missiles at targets daily in the Donbas and across the country, with Ukraine’s weak air defenses capable of firing only a handful.
The Ukrainian government has been asking its Western partners for months to provide the country with heavier weapons, especially long-range artillery, tanks, air defense systems and aircraft. The United States and some allies are only now beginning to respond to these inquiries, and are moving away from the previous policy of providing mostly portable short-range weapons such as Javelin and NLAW anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
“If during the first week of the war we had received what we get today, it would have been much more useful for Ukraine and the cause of freedom in Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech on Tuesday night. we now get what some of our partners plan to transfer to Ukraine in the coming weeks, it would help save the lives of thousands and thousands of people again. “
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said on Tuesday that between eight and ten aircraft cargoes with weapons for Ukraine land at transhipment sites in Europe daily, from where the equipment is brought into Ukraine on the way. Frequent US military flights land at the airport in the Polish city of Rzeszow, in particular, according to flight tracking websites. While Russia has protested against these arms deliveries and promised to disrupt them, there has been no evidence that the country could do so, Kirby said.
President Biden approved another $ 800 million military aid package to Ukraine on April 13, which for the first time included heavy artillery — 18 howitzers. Unlike Soviet-style artillery pieces in the Ukrainian arsenal, these weapons use 155 mm of ammunition, which is much more readily available in the West.
Mr Kirby said that these howitzers, as well as 40,000 cartridges of ammunition, would be in Ukraine within a few days. Although the United States has not specified the type of ammunition it will provide, these howitzers could fire precision-guided ammunition that could significantly improve Ukraine’s capabilities.
On Tuesday during a visit to New Hampshire if the United States were to send additional artillery to Ukraine, Biden replied “yes.” The leaders of Canada and Britain have also promised to provide Ukraine with more artillery. “This is going to be an artillery conflict, they need more artillery support, that’s what we’ll give them,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The United States has also worked with partners to provide Ukraine with spare parts for its jet fighters, Kirby said, adding that Ukraine now has more operational jets than two weeks ago. Norway, one of several other partners helping Ukraine to defend itself, said on Wednesday that it had already sent 100 Mistral anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.
End of quote
Let us also pay attention to a new front in the Kremlin Russian Mafia states stealing from the world. Here it is in living color:
领英推荐
https://www.rawstory.com/war-in-ukraine-threatens-geopolitical-balance-in-the-arctic/
quote
April 20, 2022
US soldiers participate in Cold Response, a Norwegian-led military exercise in which NATO and partner countries participate, in Sandstrand, in the Norwegian Arctic, on March 21, 2022.?? Jonathan Nackstrand, AFP
Russia shares a maritime border in the Arctic with European and American members of NATO. While environmental concerns and economic interests have typically dominated collaboration in the region, the war in Ukraine threatens to upset this careful balance.
Russia’s senior diplomat at the Arctic Council intergovernmental forum, Nikolai Korchunov, spoke out on April 17 about NATO’s increased presence in the Arctic since the war in Ukraine began. He said long-planned military drills between?NATO, Finland and Sweden in the region in March were “a cause for concern” for?Russia.
“The Alliance recently held another large-scale military exercise in northern Norway. In our view, this does not contribute to the security of the region," he said.
If the Western military alliance continues its?Arctic?activities, "unintended incidents" might occur, he said, without specifying what these might be.
In such a unique part of the world, “incidents” of any kind could disrupt a fragile balance.
The Arctic is a potential goldmine for energy resources and shipping routes, often governed by complex bilateral agreements between the Arctic states. The eight Arctic countries – Canada, Finland, Denmark, the United States, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Russia – typically collaborate. United by their shared Arctic coastline, harsh environmental conditions have led them to forge agreements on maritime law, environmental balance and security needs as basic as conducting effective search-and-rescue operations.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The relationships in the Arctic are not ones that can be broken apart quickly, easily or lightly, nor should they be,” said Dr Melanie Garson, lecturer in international conflict resolution and security in the political science department of University College London, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “There are critical issues in the Arctic that need to be kept stable for short-term and long-term stability.”
But there are signs that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is already disrupting this careful balance. Russia now shares the Arctic coastline with five NATO member states, plus Finland and Sweden – all of whom are sending military and financial support to help Ukraine fight against the Russian invasion.
All the members of the Arctic Council aside from Russia announced in March they would boycott talks in Russia, currently chairing the Atlantic Council until 2023, due to its “flagrant violation” of Ukraine’s sovereignty. As such, the group’s work has been put on hold.
“It’s very unusual,” Garson says. “The Arctic Council has survived periods of tension, but what we're seeing in the Ukraine is a huge turning point in history. We can't dismiss how that might affect tried and tested alliances.”
‘A fifth ocean on top of the world’
Political and economic concerns in the Arctic are defined by its unique and rapidly changing climate. While the south Arctic is covered in forests, further north the land becomes treeless, dominated by tundra, deserts and ice that is rapidly melting due to climate change.
In the past 30 years the thickest ice in the Arctic has?declined by 95?percent. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at their current rate, the Arctic could be ice-free in the summer by 2040.
Increased human presence poses an additional threat to a natural landscape that is already under pressure.
Traditionally, the urgent climate situation has been a key reason for international cooperation. The first step towards the formation of the Arctic Council was the?Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy?signed in 1991 as an agreement between the Arctic states and Indigenous people’s organizations.
But the dramatic loss of ice is changing the political and economic landscape in the region. “We have basically a fifth ocean opening on the top of the world,” said Katarzyna Zysk, professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies. “And when that ocean is open, it will be used for economic and military purposes.”
In Russia, loss of ice is also changing the military focus. Of the total Arctic Ocean coastline,?53 percent is Russian. “It is a huge, vast area,” Zysk says. “Those borders were protected by ice, but now the ice is disappearing. That means the region can be used, potentially, in an attack on Russia.”
Consequently, Russia has been increasing its military presence in the far north. The most obvious example of this is its Arctic navy, the Northern Fleet, established in 2014 and based on the Kola Peninsula near the border with Finland and Norway.
Its arsenal includes submarines armed with nuclear-powered missiles, anti-submarine aircraft, aircraft carriers and ships armed with missiles, among others. “The Northern Fleet is the strongest part of the Russian Navy,” Zysk says. “Russia has their largest share of strategic submarines and other important non-nuclear capabilities on the Kola Peninsula.”
‘Ukraine was a game changer’
The establishment of the Northern Fleet coincided with Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. To international observers, Russia’s military activities in the Arctic took on an increasingly aggressive stance, raising the stakes for other Arctic states.
“The major thrust of NATO's interests in the Arctic came after the annexation of Crimea,” Zysk says. “Ukraine was a game changer, because even though Russia had been generally cooperative and predictable in the Arctic, NATO could not detach what Russia was doing in Ukraine from its military expansion in the Arctic.”
This meant also increasing NATO’s presence in the Arctic to ensure that if Article Five were triggered by a Russian attack in the region, the group could provide the required collective defense. However, Russia also continued increasing its forces. From 2016 onwards, it?upped the frequency?of its military exercises in the Arctic, even displaying an “ability to project power beyond its Arctic waters and assert maritime control”, according to the nonprofit policy research organization The Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The current war in Ukraine has raised the stakes once again. If Sweden and Finland join NATO – as both are seriously considering doing – all the Arctic states except Russia will be part of the military alliance.
“NATO will then have a strategic re-evaluation of how the Arctic sits within the alliance, and decisions NATO will take will set the future relationship,” Garson says. “Given the rumblings from Russia about this potential NATO expansion, that could cause tension.”
Most recently, these rumblings include an April 14 threat that if Sweden and Finland join NATO then?Russia would deploy nuclear weapons?and hypersonic missiles to the Baltic region.
“There are some scenarios you could imagine, where Russia would challenge Article Five,” Zysk says. “One possibility is that Russia could do it in the Arctic because it has a relatively strong military presence there compared to the other NATO states.”
‘The leading actor in the Arctic’
However, Russia is not necessarily building up its military force in the Arctic for an attack – it has plenty there to protect, too.
A 2008 study by the US Geological Survey found that the Arctic could be home to?the largest unexplored oil and gas reserves?on Earth, storing billions of barrels of unmined energy resources. Much of the reserves are thought to be offshore, in Russian seas.
Oil and gas are not the only potential assets. “The region is very rich not only in energy, but also mineral resources, a lot of which are in the Russian Arctic,” Zysk says. “There are also very well-preserved fish stocks that are valuable, considering the growing food crisis in the world.”
In addition there is potential for a lucrative economic future as a transport hub. The Northern Sea Route that runs along Russia’s north coast is currently blocked by ice for most of the year – but if it weren’t, it could become a highly profitable shipping channel. For example, shipping times and fuel costs for transporting goods between China and Europe would be cut dramatically if they could travel via the Arctic instead of the current route via South Asia and through the Suez Canal.
These possible future scenarios have increased international interest in the Arctic. In addition to the eight core members with territories in the Arctic, the Arctic Council also has?13 council observers?that can propose projects in the region. These include France, Germany, the UK and, most notably, China, which has been actively setting up Arctic research stations and investing in mining and energy.
This international interest in the riches of the Arctic has also compelled Russia to play a more dominant role in the region. “It has been stimulating Russia to strengthen its position, because Russia sees itself as the leading actor in the Arctic – and for good reasons, if you look at the geography,” Zysk says.
So far, however, there seems to be little appetite from Russia to extend this role to military clashes in the far north, despite the confrontation in Ukraine pitting Arctic states against each other.
“My reading is that Russia has been actually trying to avoid escalation,” Zysk says. Following NATO exercises with Finland and Sweden in early March, NATO troops participated in another exercise in Norway on March 25. The Russia response was muted – it released a statement in protest, and conducted its own military training exercises on the same day.
“Russia always protests when NATO does military exercises close to its borders,” Zysk says. “But we haven't seen any provocative behaviour from Russia in the Arctic. I think Russia is actually trying to avoid escalating [international reaction to] the conflict in Ukraine, and also its military is already fully engaged there.”
Among Western allies, too, the war in Ukraine may prove to be a turning point for political relations in the Arctic, but not necessarily a rupture. “The Arctic Council has paused, temporarily, its work, but it’s not breaking apart,” Garson says. “More than anything, trust has been severely broken in relationships with Russia, so Arctic states are rethinking how they go forward.”
In a part of the world dominated by such a challenging natural landscape it might be that the necessity for collaboration and cooperation between Arctic states ultimately overrides political tensions. “The Arctic is governed by quite a complex web of bilateral and multilateral agreements, and I think the nations will be careful of walking away from them too quickly,” Garson says. “There will be a will for political cooperation.”
Report typos and corrections to:?[email protected].
End of quote:
FTR
What Putin and Lukashenko wish to do is to jointly strut around May 9th, in vindication of the jointly shared oppression of their people, and to keep in place the Russian Mafia stealing from Russia, Belarus and conquered sections of Ukraine, for their joint benefit . All this thievery makes it imperative that NATO, the Western powers in EU and America do NOT fight to "the last Ukrainian " in this miserable war, because each day of delay means unacceptable losses due to Russian Mafia Kapos unleashed upon nearly 200 million people, Enough is enough
Failing to end this looting will mean a jump from the Donbass, and also the Artic region which undoubtedly has Putin so excited, to the Moon, and maybe Mars itself, as Kremlin Mafia extortion and looting becomes an imperial dominion being the first interplanetary Mafia empire in human history. Putin and Lukashenko wish to make this interplanetary Kremlin Mafia extortion empire one which dwarfs in reach the dominions of Genghis Kahn, who founded the transnational Mongolian empire of the 13th century, stretching from Europe to central China. Ending this eventuality means not letting PUTIN and Lukashenko loot the Donbass at will and expelling them both from Ukraine without delay.
Andrew Beckwith, PhD