Russia never committed a war crime it didn't deny

If the Russians don't care about preserving Ukrainian people or infrastructure with their invasion of Ukraine, and their practice to this point shows they don't, it makes perfect military sense for them to blow the dam and put all that water between their positions south of the Dnipro River and the Ukrainian forces north of it, just as the Ukrainians are launching their long awaited "Going South" counter-offensive.

Ukraine loses a lot with the dam blown. So will the people of the world for that matter. It will knockout much of the hydroelectric power in a country that has already had much of its electrical infrastructure destroyed by Russia's relendless bombing of it this winter. It also seriously disrupts the water supply, threatening to turn much of what has been called the breadbasket of the world into desert. Recently, Moscow has also been seen taking out combines with missiles. Destroying Ukrainian wheat production is another of the Kremlin's war goals served by the burst dam. The pain of food shortages caused by Russia will be felt far from the battlefields of Ukraine. 

Still, true to form, Russia denies blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Dmitry Peskov

"We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side," of the Nova Kakhovka dam—while it was under the control of Russian occupation forces, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov only hours after the dam was breached. 

This allowed Democracy Now to claim:

Ukraine and Russia Blame One Another

As if that's all we know.

So, Russia denies blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam, the same way they denied any intention of invading Ukraine in Feb '22 and said Joe Biden was lying on them up until the point their tanks crossed the border. The same way they claimed the 'little green men' that invaded Crimea & Donbas in 2014 weren't Russian soldiers, the same way they denied the downing of MH17, and the murder of the Shripal's with Novichok, the same way they deny bombing hospitals and targeting civilians. Russia never committed a war crime it didn't deny.

On the other hand, the whole world knows who invaded Ukraine, who seized, and is illegally occupying the areas around the Nova Kakhovka dam and the Zaporizhzhia' nuclear power plant. We know who has been murdering Ukrainian civilians, and who has been methodically taking out Ukraine's infrastructure, especially electrical generating facilities—like the dam.

We also know that the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and its leadership, who have been fighting so courageously to protect its people from Russian atrocities, would never do this to Ukraine. Even now, they are frantically working to save people imperiled by the flood—even while still under Russian artillery fire. That's right, the Russians are still trying to kill the people the Kremlin claims the Ukrainians are trying to flood out! 

We also know that chief Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lies like Trump.

During the 2011–2013 Russian protests in which riot police clubbed protestors, Peskov said that "protesters who hurt riot police should have their livers smeared on the asphalt." So much for his attitude, but we are more concerned with his truthfulness. 

A few of the Lies of Dmitry Peskov

• Russia had nothing to do with the 2006 polonium poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko.
• Bashar Assad never used sarin or any CW against his opposition in Syria.
• Russia had nothing to do with the 2018 Novichok poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter Yulia.
• Russia had nothing to do with the 2020 Novichok poisoning of Alexei Navalny.
• In the months before Russia invaded Ukraine: Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine. Those claims were just western provocation.
• Russia never targets Ukrainian civilians or civilian infrastructure, only military targets.
• It was the Ukrainians who destroyed Mariupol, not the Russian bombardment, and the murdered civilians were killed by Ukrainian "Nazis" and staged to blame Russia.
• Russia committed no war crimes in Bucha, it was a "well-staged insinuation, nothing else".
• On 13 September 2022, Peskov said there are no plans to announce a full or partial mobilization in Russia. On 21 September 2022, Putin announced a partial military mobilization.
• The US orchestrated the "assassination" drone attack on the Kremlin.

Why in the world would journalists report the word of this man, or the government he represents, in denying the latest Russian war crime as though he possessed something like an ounce of credibility?

Clay Claiborne

7 June 2023

 

An interesting dialogue from Democracy Now's 23 March 2022 show—so 14 months ago:

AMY GOODMAN: Volodymyr Ishchenko, I wanted to ask you about the Azov Battalion [sic.-Regiment], a part of the Ukrainian National Guard, and if you fear that the massive number of weapons going in, that what’s going on right now, is actually strengthening them. You have the first battalion commander — I mean, it’s outwardly, you know, racist, antisemitic. You have first battalion commander, Andriy Biletsky, saying Ukraine’s national purpose was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].” And I’m wondering — you have Facebook allowing praise of neo-Nazi Ukrainian battalion [This is a Russian propaganda talking point. See this blog post for more on Azov and the Ukrainian extreme right.] leading into the war, but not allowing its coat of arms and other things to be shown or them to recruit, but because they’ve been so successful on the battlefield. So I wanted to ask if you could explain who they are and also their role in Mariupol.

VOLODYMYR ISHCHENKO: Biletsky actually moderated some of his positions since the moment he entered big politics. And so, what you’re quoting is coming even before the Euromaidan revolution, before 2014, when he led actually, indeed, an extreme-right group. Although [he] was definitely a very important part of a far-right movement, which is not just military units but also a political party, National Corps, of the explicitly far-right orientation, a paramilitary 

AMY GOODMAN: I have to warn you: We only have a minute and a half.

VOLODYMYR ISHCHENKO: Oh, sorry. Yeah, paramilitary institution, as well. And now, I mean, if you’re sending weapons to Ukraine, I’m not sure if there is any possibility to discriminate who are these weapons getting to. And the problem with this, with Russia invasion, is that one of the results would be that the people like Azov would get probably even more power and even more notoriety for playing some role in this war, specifically in the defense of Mariupol. And yeah, the result would be not great.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you concerned about this?

VOLODYMYR ISHCHENKO: I mean, there are many things that you should be concerned right now, and not — I mean, as always, just one of the many, many, many other things that — I mean, most of Ukrainians are primarily concerned now about the shellings and bombings and rockets that may strike their homes and kill them.

It's all a question of priorities. Amy's priority when discussing the Ukrainian situation is promoting Russian propaganda as best she can.