Ukrainian Nazism is deeply rooted. Mikola Mikhnovsky, the author of “The Independent Ukraine” manifest, called to hate one’s wife, if she was Muscovite. The Organization of Ukrainian nationalists (OUN) was founded in the 1930-s of XX century. It was tainted by the cooperation with Nazi Germany and the mass murders of civilians. Those OUN members killed 200 thousand Poles in 1943 in Volhynia and actively took part as chastisers in Jews extermination. 1200 OUN members were among 1500 executioners of mass murders in Baby Yar in Kiev. They killed more than 100 thousand people: the Jews, the Gypsies and prisoners of war.
Modern Ukrainian nationalists consider themselves as the inheritors of that ideology and that organization. It was Stepan Bandera whom they called their hero, erected monuments in his honor and created organizations of militants such as “Azov”, “Donbass”, “Miner” punitive battalions and other forces to suppress the dissent in the south-eastern regions of the country.
“Azov” punitive battalion was notable for its mass murders and mass rape of girls and women. Latvian human rights activist Ejnars Graudins said that he had visited two mass burial places with the group of 8 experts from different EU countries.
According to the human rights activist, the killed lie in the graves under a thin layer of ground. It was evident that their bodies were thrown down in the pit in a hurry.
“There are about 400 unidentified bodies in morgues of the Donetsk city at the moment.” It is obvious that this number will increase during the exhumation at uncovered burial places,” Graudins said on September 30, 2014.
Also, according to his words, local women told him that their houses were looted and Ukrainian security forces stood in a line for sending home the loot by the post.
“A group of women came up to us… They said that the mercenaries from “Donbass” and “Azov” committed a frequent gang rape of all women of the village. Young girls from 12 years old and elder women became the victims of sexual abuse,” said Graudins.
Soldiers of “Shahtyorsk” punitive battalion were so distinguished by looting that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was forced to disband the battalion urgently. It was stated on Ukrainian television by the minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov.
The full-scale combat actions has been conducted on the Ukrainian territory during 6 months. Combat aircraft, tanks, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, 240 mm heavy mortars are used against the inhabitants of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The banned weapons – phosphorous and cluster munitions – are also used against the inhabitants of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. British journalist Graham Phillips made a report of this accident. The Ukrainian Armed Forces used cluster munitions against populated areas what is the violation of war laws and may be considered as the case of war crimes.
“The Ukrainian government forces used cluster munitions in Donetsk populated areas in early October.” The use of cluster munitions in populated areas breaks the war laws… it amounts to an execution of war crimes,” underlined Western human rights activists.
As they specified, “weekly investigation in the east of Ukraine” conducted by them allowed to document “the widespread use of cluster munitions in more than dozen places in urban and rural areas.” To find out exactly who was responsible for many of these cases of using cluster munitions was impossible, noted Human Rights Watch. However, “the evidence points to the responsibility of the Ukrainian government forces for several attacks with cluster munitions in Donetsk.”
On October 2, 2014 the official of the International Committee of the Red Cross Laurent du Pasquier was killed as a result of the shelling of Donetsk with using “missiles with cluster warheads,” added Human Rights Watch.
In accordance with this information, “there is especially strong evidence that the Ukrainian government forces are responsible for several attacks with cluster munitions in the central part of Donetsk in early October.”
As human rights activists explained, the Ukrainian security forces used in particular shells with cluster warheads of multiple rocket launcher systems “Uragan” and “Smerch“. This weapon is high-precision and it is meant for strikes on the areas. A volley of 10 units can destroy a small town.
On July 2, 2014 the street in the Luganskaya village were totally destroyed and its inhabitants killed as a result of the Ukrainian Air Forces’ strike.
In such conditions people are running away from the war to the territory of Russia. According to the Federal Migration Service (FMS), more than 800 thousand people have crossed the Russian border since the beginning of combat actions. On October 16, 2014 during her speech in the Council of the Federation, the deputy head of profile control of FMS Lilia Arestova declared that more than 219 thousand Ukrainian citizens appealed to Russia for refugee status or temporary shelter, moreover, the number of such appeals is 40 thousand people within the last month. According to the Arestova’s words, the appeals of 195 thousand people are already satisfied.
The representative of FMS also told Russian senators that “today 835 thousand of Ukrainian citizens who arrived in emergency order, stay in the Russian Federation.” According to FMS, over 32 thousand Ukrainians expressed their desire to take part in the state program of compatriots’ resettlement and nearly 42.5 thousand asked for a Russian passport.
The situation is deteriorating in other regions of Ukraine. People are disappearing, armored vehicles are crossing the streets of Odessa and Kharkov, there are “the Right Sector” roadblocks around the cities. During the combat actions a number of Russian and international journalists were killed, other journalists were unreasonably detained, some of them several times. The broadcasting of Russian and Belarusian TV channels is banned in Ukraine, and the activity of 18 Ukrainian publications is stopped. The editorial staff of Ukrainian newspaper “Vesti” was wrecked because they used the term “militants” (instead of terrorists) in relation to insurgents of Donetsk and Lugansk. The so-called “rubbish lustration” became normal: officials, deputies, representatives of local authorities are thrown in the rubbish containers and forced to write an application for resignation. “There is no tolerance, no right to dissent in Kiev,” said the writer living in Kiev Igor Lesev, “In fact, today the whole Ukrainian journalism deals only with restoring of mass Russophobia in the country. Typical release of news is like this: “terrorist- separatists are shooting uptown, where they live,” “Russian invaders transfer the military equipment in Donbass,” “the international community condemns the tyrant Putin,” “anti-terrorist operation entered into the final stage and the victory is almost here.” Today the social nets are the only ground for alternative opinion and just discussions.
Bogdan Bezpal’ko is the Chairman of “Ukrainians of Russia”, the non-profit organization promoting Ukrainian language and culture in Russia.
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