Silence is complicity in the face of Russia’s barbaric war crimes

Editorial: As President Zelensky pointed out, there have been aspects of the bloody, medieval campaign that went beyond mere collateral damage

The pictures and accounts of survivors in places such as Bucha and Mariupol speak for themselves (AFP via Getty)

Even if only a fraction of what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations Security Council was true, it would be evidence of a war of aggression conducted by Russia with the deliberate intention of terrorising the people of Ukraine.

Indeed, as President Zelensky pointed out, there have been aspects of the barbaric, medieval campaign that went beyond mere collateral damage and into the kind of killing for fun that history associates with notorious mass murderers. Even with a poorly motivated, badly equipped, undisciplined conscript army, it is difficult to believe such crimes could take place.

It is, unfortunately, all too easy to believe that they were approved, or acquiesced in, by local officers, senior commanders, and Vladimir Putin himself. It is what happens when you demonise an entire nation with an absurd claim that they are all Nazis determined to destroy Russia.

Rape, torture, mutilations, forced deportations, looting – the Russian Army, which has many valiant episodes in its past, has shamed itself and its country. The Russian people would not countenance such things, and would instead rise up against the gangsters who commit these crimes, if only they were told the appalling truth – which they are not, of course.

There is less justification for the equivocation and complacency of others, however, especially those powers on the security council of the UN who were represented in the conference chamber. President Zelensky told them of the same things the world’s media has been reporting for weeks, and what the Russian retreat has revealed – yet more evidence of massacres, and credible witness reports of gratuitous cruelties perpetrated by Russian forces.

The pictures and accounts of survivors in places such as Bucha and Mariupol speak for themselves. The satellite images show the corpses on the ground before Russian troops had left. The bodies were floppy because rigor mortis had passed by the time the Ukrainians regained their land. The government of Ukraine did not have the firepower to wipe Mariupol and other places off the face of the earth. The UN’s own humanitarian agency workers have reported the same. So have Russian dissidents. So would Russian soldiers.

In particular, the UN ambassadors from China and India should have been embarrassed by what they heard, including the Russian representatives’ feeble attempts to spin war crimes. If sanctions are what it will take to end the war and restore the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine – as China and India desire – then why is India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, lavishing hospitality on Sergei Lavrov, heir to Molotov and Gromyko, and buying Russian oil “on tick”?

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Why is China not condemning the murder of innocent people? Do they really believe that Ukraine is run by Nazis, and that Russia is “cutting out a malignant Nazi tumour?”

Both China and India have been subject to invasion, dismemberment and imperial-era cruelties, and they should reflect on what they are facilitating today. When Boris Johnson travels to India later this month, he will appeal to Mr Modi to restore the international order – a more valuable cargo than Russian oil.

Neutrality is not an honourable position in the face of war crimes. If every major power in the world sanctioned Russia and supplied military aid to Ukraine, then the UN Charter would be restored as well. Otherwise, as Mr Zelensky bluntly told the world, they may as well pack up and go home. After all, Russia still sits on the UN Human Rights Committee. Helping Russia to bust sanctions is no way to build relationships with the west. Silence is collaboration.