Daily Times

The Kremlin-leaning Eastern Ukraine has become the main target of the war after Russia announced the annexation of four captured parts of Ukraine; Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. A severe fight is on for Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine. More US military shipments have arrived to support the Ukrainian government. NATO, a military alliance of the US and the West, is there too to fuel the war. A prosperous Ukraine has become an economic slave of the US and the West; owing the US $ 26 million in less than a decade. It includes huge military debt that has caused the worst economic and infrastructural destruction in Ukraine and the region since the war erupted in the last week of February this year.

Destruction is at its high. A huge loss of infrastructure and lives continues. No solace seems to hit anytime soon to the region and the people of warring countries. The US and NATO-backed Ukrainian forces hit the Crimea bridge, the main link to Russia, on Saturday another toll of the war. “The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said the explosion on a key bridge linking Crimea and the Russian mainland was a terrorist act planned by the Ukrainian special services,” the Guardian reported.

No doubt, the Crimea Bridge was a critically important civilian infrastructure being used for military movement. In the eighth month, unethical practices and crimes entered into the war. Russia has warned many times of nuclear attack if the US and the West would continue to fiddle around the war zone with its direct action through its commandos and artillery. The West and the US are also blaming Russia for the war crimes. This is being highlighted in the global media outlets and their one-sided stories. No one is picking up on Russia’s stance.

Repression by the Kyiv authorities has provoked the growth of latent protest potential, which can transform into open civil disobedience.

At the beginning of the war, I apprehended that Ukraine would become another Afghanistan. So, it is there. The Ukrainians are paying for the comedy of errors of a comedian actor – a president of a devastated country, the worst victim of economic and infrastructural losses. Certainly, it would take decades to recover and rebuild Ukraine once the war is settled down. Certainly, not soon. The huge cachet of weapons is still in the stores of war merchants.

Russia is speaking out about war crimes by the Ukrainian forces in the ravaged Eastern Ukraine. Moscow believes it is with the tacit consent of the US and its NATO partners that Ukraine continues to commit criminal actions in eastern Ukraine. The norms of international law are being violated by Ukrainian armed formations through brutal violence, torture and abuse of Russian servicemen. At the same time, Kyiv is creating obstacles to monitoring compliance with the norms established by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have widely used extrajudicial reprisals against ideological opponents inside the country, forcing its citizens to leave Ukraine with their families and children and take refuge from reprisals in neighbouring countries, including Russia. Ukrainian security forces, under the guise of war, without court authorization, carry out executions of civilians, torture and other illegal actions.

In addition, President Zelensky is accused of rapidly establishing a dictatorship in Ukraine under the guise of war. Under the president’s guidance, large-scale extrajudicial killings of dissidents are carried out and the opposition is liquidated under the pretext of fighting “pro-Russian activists.” At the same time, experts are convinced that the repression by the Kyiv authorities has provoked the growth of latent protest potential, which can transform into open civil disobedience. Ukrainians have begun to form an anti-Kyiv guerrilla underground. Increased repression in Ukraine will encourage more people to join the resistance, as happened in Nazi Germany in World War II. However, the Kyiv authorities, taking advantage of the world community’s impunity, are trying to accuse Russia of violating the rules of war and to hold the Russian Armed Forces responsible for the alleged genocide of the local population during the special military operation in Ukraine.

The war has affected the EU countries too. A massive crowd of protesters marched through the centre of Paris last Saturday demanding that France radically change its stance on NATO and the EU engagement in the Russia-Ukraine war. The march was organized by the right-wing Les Patriotes (The Patriots) party led by Florian Philippot, the former deputy head of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. Dubbed “the national meeting of resistance,” the rally attracted “thousands and thousands” of people, according to Philippot, who was also a member of the European Parliament between 2014 and 2019.

Germany, Finland, Sweden and France have severely been hit by the energy-cutting and gas supplies from Russia after they refused to pay off the bill for the supplies. It has resulted in “economic disruption” as the protestors in the affected countries believe and march on the streets. Protests in France are the latest ones to have had a severe impact on the war. The protestors have demanded the French government get out of the EU. Seems, the Ukraine war will have a further impact on the EU economic framework too. It has to suffer badly as many in other EU countries are asking their governments to say no to the US influence on the EU – an emerging big challenge.

The writer is a freelance journalist and broadcaster, and Director Devcom-Pakistan. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com and tweets @EmmayeSyed