And now, Putin to salvage his collapsing army is using chemical warfare. What this means.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/12/ukraine-president-warns-of-new-stage-of-terror-as-west-probes-chemical-weapons-claims
quote
Ukraine president warns of ‘new stage of terror’ as west probes chemical weapons claims
Volodymyr Zelenskiy taking chemical weapons threat ‘seriously’ as Mariupol mayor says thousands have died in devastated port city
01:11
'New stage of terror': Zelenskiy voices concern over possible chemical weapons attack – video
Samantha Lock,?Luke Harding?in Kyiv,?Julian Borger?in Washington and agencies
Tue 12 Apr 2022 00.32 EDT
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has voiced concerns that Russian forces are preparing “a new stage of terror” that could involve the use of chemical weapons in?Ukraine, as the mayor of Mariupol said that more than 10,000 civilians had died so far in the Russian siege of his city.
“Today, the occupiers issued a new statement, which testifies to their preparation for a new stage of terror against?Ukraine?and our defenders,” Zelesnkiy said early on Tuesday. “One of the mouthpieces of the occupiers stated that they could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol. We take this as seriously as possible.”
Andriy Biletsky, the leader of the Azov volunteer regiment, claimed on Monday that three people in the southern port city had experienced “poisoning by warfare chemicals, but without catastrophic consequences”. However, Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the Mariupol’s mayor wrote that a chemical attack had not been confirmed and that officials were “waiting for official information from the military”.
UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said work was under way to verify the claim, adding: “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold [Vladimir] Putin and his regime to account.”
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said he was aware of the reports but could not confirm them. “These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including teargas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine,” he said.
Western officials have previously expressed concerns that Russia, finding its 24 February invasion of its neighbour grinding into a protracted conflict, could resort to more extreme measures,?including chemical weapons.
end of quote
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/05/world/ukraine-russia-war
And
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/12/ukraine-president-warns-of-new-stage-of-terror-as-west-probes-chemical-weapons-claims
quote'
Ukraine president warns of ‘new stage of terror’ as west probes chemical weapons claims
Volodymyr Zelenskiy taking chemical weapons threat ‘seriously’ as Mariupol mayor says thousands have died in devastated port city
'New stage of terror': Zelenskiy voices concern over possible chemical weapons attack – video
Samantha Lock,?Luke Harding?in Kyiv,?Julian Borger?in Washington and agencies
Tue 12 Apr 2022 00.32 EDT
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has voiced concerns that Russian forces are preparing “a new stage of terror” that could involve the use of chemical weapons in?Ukraine, as the mayor of Mariupol said that more than 10,000 civilians had died so far in the Russian siege of his city.
“Today, the occupiers issued a new statement, which testifies to their preparation for a new stage of terror against?Ukraine?and our defenders,” Zelesnkiy said early on Tuesday. “One of the mouthpieces of the occupiers stated that they could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol. We take this as seriously as possible.”
Andriy Biletsky, the leader of the Azov volunteer regiment, claimed on Monday that three people in the southern port city had experienced “poisoning by warfare chemicals, but without catastrophic consequences”. However, Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the Mariupol’s mayor wrote that a chemical attack had not been confirmed and that officials were “waiting for official information from the military”.
UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said work was under way to verify the claim, adding: “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold [Vladimir] Putin and his regime to account.”
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said he was aware of the reports but could not confirm them. “These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including teargas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine,” he said.
Western officials have previously expressed concerns that Russia, finding its 24 February invasion of its neighbour grinding into a protracted conflict, could resort to more extreme measures,?including chemical weapons.
Russian troops have been besieging the city on the Sea of Azov since the beginning of March. The territory controlled by Ukrainian forces has gradually shrunk to a few central areas. The surviving marines are now holed up in the Azovstal iron and steelworks next to the port.
The last Ukrainian soldiers defending Mariupol said they were?“running out of ammunition”?on Monday and expected to be killed or taken prisoner very soon by Russian forces surrounding the city.
Vadym Boychenko, Mariupol’s mayor, told the Associated Press on Monday that more than 10,000 civilians had died in his city, and that the toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave the bodies of Mariupol’s people “carpeted through the streets”.
Boychenko also accused Russian forces of having blocked humanitarian convoys into the city for weeks in an attempt to conceal the carnage there from the outside world.
Mariupol has been cut off by Russian attacks that began soon after Russian president?Vladimir Putin?launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, and has suffered some of the most brutal assaults of the war.
Boychenko gave new details of recent allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces had brought mobile cremation equipment to dispose of the corpses of victims of the siege. “Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” he said.
Russian forces have taken many bodies to a huge shopping centre where there are storage facilities and refrigerators, he said.
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About 120,000 civilians are in dire need of food, water, warmth and communications, the mayor said. Only those residents who have passed the Russian “filtration camps” are released from the city, Boychenko said.
Improvised prisons were organised for those who did not pass the “filtering”, while at least 33,000 people were taken to Russia or to separatist territory in Ukraine, he claimed.
A Russia-allied separatist official, Eduard Basurin, appeared to the use of chemical weapons on Monday, telling Russian state TV that Russian-backed forces should seize a giant metals plant in Mariupol by first blocking all the exits out of the factory. “And then we’ll use chemical troops to smoke them out of there,” he said.
Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush said Russia had used an “unknown substance” in Mariupol and that people were suffering from respiratory failure, but did not know if chemical weapons had been used.
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Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children – 4.8 million – have fled their homes since the start of Russia’s invasion, the UN children’s agency said on Monday. The UN has verified the deaths of 142 youngsters, though the number is almost certainly much higher, the agency said.
It comes as the UN has increasingly heard accounts of rape and sexual violence in?Ukraine?and called for an investigation into violence against women and increased protection for Ukrainian children. Sima Bahous, UN Women executive director, told the UN security council: “The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags.”
Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights said she had recorded horrific acts of sexual violence by Russian troops in Bucha and elsewhere, including a case in which women and girls were kept in a basement for 25 days, the New York Times reported. Nine of those victims are now pregnant, according to the ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova.
End of quote
The long and short of it is a new reign of terror, and what we are having normalized is the targeting of civilian centers of resistance.
In Iraq, White Phosphorus?was used in 2017 against Mosul, against the Islamic Caliphate to devastating effect. This action constituted normalization of extreme measures against an enemy , and now Putin is selling equally barbarous , or even worse methods of extinguishing resistance. This by a none too successful military with opposition to be brought to heel via direct terror weapons. In a word, the major powers are getting away with normalization of unspeakably cruel and devastating anti personnel weapons. Unless Putin's military is defeated in detail, and banished across Ukraine's border with Russia, even limited tactical battlefield "success" will lead tyrants to endorse the meme that "the ends justifies the means" will lead to a normalization of terror weapons used by tyrants. I.e. we have a window of opportunity to close this "option" off, but only if we face it for what it is. The horrific degradation of humanity itself to the level of cattle sent to be slaughtered in meat packing plants.
In a word, this is the the legacy of this war. Putin, in a "controlled 'democracy' " as he often calls Russia is hiding this abomination from his people, but Putin will view its "success" as a green light for more of the same
Time to end it. NOW
Andrew Beckwith, PhD
Russian troops have been besieging the city on the Sea of Azov since the beginning of March. The territory controlled by Ukrainian forces has gradually shrunk to a few central areas. The surviving marines are now holed up in the Azovstal iron and steelworks next to the port.
The last Ukrainian soldiers defending Mariupol said they were?“running out of ammunition”?on Monday and expected to be killed or taken prisoner very soon by Russian forces surrounding the city.
Vadym Boychenko, Mariupol’s mayor, told the Associated Press on Monday that more than 10,000 civilians had died in his city, and that the toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave the bodies of Mariupol’s people “carpeted through the streets”.
Boychenko also accused Russian forces of having blocked humanitarian convoys into the city for weeks in an attempt to conceal the carnage there from the outside world.
Mariupol has been cut off by Russian attacks that began soon after Russian president?Vladimir Putin?launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, and has suffered some of the most brutal assaults of the war.
Boychenko gave new details of recent allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces had brought mobile cremation equipment to dispose of the corpses of victims of the siege. “Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” he said.
Russian forces have taken many bodies to a huge shopping centre where there are storage facilities and refrigerators, he said.
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About 120,000 civilians are in dire need of food, water, warmth and communications, the mayor said. Only those residents who have passed the Russian “filtration camps” are released from the city, Boychenko said.
Improvised prisons were organised for those who did not pass the “filtering”, while at least 33,000 people were taken to Russia or to separatist territory in Ukraine, he claimed.
A Russia-allied separatist official, Eduard Basurin, appeared to the use of chemical weapons on Monday, telling Russian state TV that Russian-backed forces should seize a giant metals plant in Mariupol by first blocking all the exits out of the factory. “And then we’ll use chemical troops to smoke them out of there,” he said.
Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush said Russia had used an “unknown substance” in Mariupol and that people were suffering from respiratory failure, but did not know if chemical weapons had been used.
Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children – 4.8 million – have fled their homes since the start of Russia’s invasion, the UN children’s agency said on Monday. The UN has verified the deaths of 142 youngsters, though the number is almost certainly much higher, the agency said.
It comes as the UN has increasingly heard accounts of rape and sexual violence in?Ukraine?and called for an investigation into violence against women and increased protection for Ukrainian children. Sima Bahous, UN Women executive director, told the UN security council: “The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags.”
Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights said she had recorded horrific acts of sexual violence by Russian troops in Bucha and elsewhere, including a case in which women and girls were kept in a basement for 25 days, the New York Times reported. Nine of those victims are now pregnant, according to the ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova.