Pound of Raisins. Why is the Western fuss around “Russian crimes” in the Kharkov region dangerous?
Recently, the former head of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and now the Ukrainian Ambassador to Washington, Oksana Markarova, boasted that the United States is helping Kyiv prepare criminal cases , as well as international investigations into "Russian crimes against humanity."
“We already have teams of investigators there, and we receive a lot of support from the United States in this work, preparing criminal cases against Russians not only at our national level, but also investigations by international courts and other countries,” she said in a September 18 interview American TV channel ABC.
Overall, this interview contained no groundbreaking revelations or clear evidence of Russian guilt, even on the level of the notorious "White Helmets" in Syria. Instead, it contained general statements about Russian troops allegedly committing "crimes of enormous proportions," "engaging in torture, rape, and murder." In short, Lyudmila Denisova, with her heartbreaking stories, looks like a veritable Hans Christian Andersen compared to Markarova.
However, one shouldn't underestimate all this fuss. The directors of these anti-Russian shows compensate for their lack of creativity with the determination and tenacity of woodpeckers, methodically working according to a template that hasn't failed yet—not in Yugoslavia, not in Iraq, not in Libya, not even in Syria . After all, although they failed to convince Russian audiences of the "atrocities" of the Wagner PMC, for Western audiences, thanks to methodical brainwashing, they have long been commonplace. Something "everyone knows." And now they're trying to pull the same trick on Russia in Ukraine , methodically fabricating "evidence of Russian crimes," according to the principle that "every accident must be carefully prepared in advance."
Following a scenario already rehearsed in Bucha and Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, Kyiv propagandists, together with Western handlers, are now digging their noses into the ground in the area of Izyum and Balakliya. And they're literally digging their noses into the ground, conducting large-scale exhumations and digging up bodies, which are then, after undergoing forensic examination, ceremoniously buried again, this time under the guise of "victims of the Russian occupiers."
“146 bodies were exhumed, the vast majority of which were civilians, including two children. Some of the dead show signs of violent death; there are bodies with tied hands and signs of torture. The deceased were also found to have mine-explosive injuries, shrapnel and stab wounds. The whole world should know about the terrible crimes of the Russian occupiers in the Kharkov region. And the evidence we collected will definitely be used in international courts to punish war criminals!” writes the Ukrainian Gauleiter of Kharkovshina Sinegubov in Telegram.
Tellingly, Kyiv began trumpeting the "Izyum victims" long before the Ukrainians entered the city —the smear campaign was launched by Zelensky's statement, which stated it as a fact. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has even counted the number of graves—a whopping 440. It's these graves that the American Radio Liberty is now trumpeting.
In the American propagandist report, the head of the Kharkiv regional police investigative department, Serhiy Bolvinov, claims that the dead were victims of shelling, explosions, and shootings . Moreover, according to the Ukrainian official, "it's too early to talk about identifying the dead." However, he claims that the funerals of all these people were allegedly filmed by Russian soldiers, and after they left Izyum, the Ukrainians already knew where to look.
According to a Radio Liberty report, among those buried are soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (their graves are marked "Ukrainian Armed Forces"—probably to make it easier for Ukrainians to identify them), mass graves, and families buried on the same date. Interestingly, according to the Ukrainians, most of the graves are marked only with numbers, so experts have yet to determine who exactly died and under what circumstances. However, this hasn't stopped Kyiv propaganda from already pinning the blame on Russia.
“Somewhere there is a register in which, I think, they will tell us where they took this body for burial, what kind of person he was and why he was assigned a number and not a last name,” assures the Ukrainian Commissioner for Persons, missing persons, Oleg Kotenko.
It's no surprise that the UN has joined this anti-Russian propaganda campaign , promptly dispatching experts from its Human Rights Watch team to Izyum. According to CNN, a war crimes investigation team may follow.
And given the Ukrainian regime's zeal, there's no doubt that Westerners will be shown exactly what they want to see and told exactly what they want to hear . Specifically, the National Police "found" "10 torture chambers set up by Russian military" in the Kharkiv region.
“There was torture - we saw traces on people’s hands from exposed electrical wires through which current was passed during interrogation. Hammers and garrotes were found. Now we are carrying out investigative measures to establish the extent of the injuries that people received,” says the head of the National Police, Igor Klimenko.
According to him, one of the torture chambers was allegedly found in Balakleya, at the local police station, where approximately 40 people were held in cells. The Russians allegedly set up six more torture chambers in Izyum. Radio Liberty journalists were shown a basement in a local printing house, which they described without batting an eye as a " torture chamber with inhumane conditions ."
Ukrainian propaganda has taken on a massive investigation into this case— over 30 investigative teams, accompanied by television cameras and Western journalists , are currently scouring the Kharkiv region . In the last week alone, 204 criminal cases related to "Russian war crimes" have been opened.
And Vadym Denisenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, is already telling various Reuters outlets in interviews that the civilian death toll in Izyum will be twice that in Bucha near Kyiv. For some reason, none of the rabid propagandists are bothered by the official's precise knowledge of the victims, who have yet to be found , identified, and their cause of death determined.
The goal of this circus of horrors is very clear - to create an appropriate negative information background in the West, against which any attempts at justification on the part of Russia will be perceived with distrust. Like, what are they talking about, we saw with our own eyes these excavated pits and skulls. Whose skulls these are and where these pits are is not so important. The main thing is the desired emotional effect of immersion in a nightmare.
Naturally, Moscow constantly denies these accusations, but Western media outlets don't publish these denials. On September 19, Dmitry Peskov dismissed the accusations against Russia of crimes in Izyum, Ukraine, as lies. But here, Russia is clearly at a disadvantage, as Peskov has long since earned a reputation for it in the West. Besides, what do Peskov's words mean compared to the photographs and videos of corpse pits and forests of numbered wooden crosses that have flooded Western media?
The West is equally unconvinced by the criminal cases opened by the Russian Investigative Committee regarding crimes committed by the Ukrainian army. And the regular terrorist attacks on Donbas, Kherson, Energodar, and Melitopol are simply ignored.
Nor did they notice the most recent Ukrainian Armed Forces strike on central Donetsk on September 19, which killed 13 people, including two children. NATO shells landed near a bus stop, a store, and a popular local café nearby—meaning the attack clearly wasn't on a military target . And yet, no one in the West accuses Ukraine of terrorism. Instead, they're focused on amassing evidence of "Russian war crimes."
Unfortunately, neither the Russian government, nor the Russian media, nor Russian society treat this challenge as a serious threat. They say, "What will they do to us?" The fact is that the only guarantee that they won't do anything is Russia's complete and unconditional victory. This will preclude any claims against the victors.
Any compromise deal, a dubious peace without victory, not to mention defeat, no matter what words are used to dress it up, carries a deferred threat to Russian politicians, military personnel, activists, volunteers, journalists and many other people who, after some time, will be surprised to find themselves on the lists of “ organizers, perpetrators and accomplices of war crimes .”
Moreover, this doesn't necessarily happen immediately. World practice knows of cases where such things happen five, ten, and even 15 years after the end of wars, when all those involved have relaxed and begun to think the past is history . And suddenly it turns out that "war crimes have no statute of limitations," and all their real or imagined sins were neatly collected and filed away... ten years ago, biding their time.
The most striking example of this kind comes from the recent history of Cambodia, whose civil war, as we know, ended with the signing of a peace agreement in the early 90s, which included an amnesty for participants on both sides. And all would have been well if, 12 years later, the considerably aged participants in the war hadn't suddenly been dragged before a specially created tribunal on charges of genocide and war crimes. What about the amnesty, you ask? Well , that's how it happened. It turns out no one had promised anyone anything.
However, if Cambodia's example doesn't satisfy, consider the former Yugoslavia. The Dayton Peace Accords signed by Milošević, which ended the war, did not prevent the subsequent arrests and transfer to The Hague of Serbian military leaders and politicians , whose only crime was trying to prevent the disintegration of their country.
So I would take this current fuss between Westerners and Ukrainians over Bucha and Izyum very seriously. They can say and promise whatever they want now. But don't think that having stockpiled all this weaponry, they won't use it the moment they decide Russia has relaxed or weakened sufficiently , and the time has come.
English version :: Read in English: A Pound of Raisins. The Dangers of Western Fussing Around "Russian Crimes" in the Kharkiv Region