cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/3977938
“While Kremlin officials argue that they are “saving” the children by removing them from their homes, international watchdogs have called the forcible removal of Ukrainian kids — including infants as young as four months old — a war crime.”
Except everybody does know what happens to them. Russia, and particularly Russian soldiers, are known for a very specific type of behavior regarding minors.
Wow, never thought I’d be wishing for Ukrainian kids to be brainwashed into becoming orcs, but the alternative you suggest is downright awful.
At one point earlier in the war, I dug around and came across some content of what some Russians were doing.
I will not go into more detail. Suffice to say: even the written accounts are pure, uncut, howlingly insane nightmare fuel that will make you want to simultaneously sob in catatonic horror and craw out of your own skin. The pure, unadulterated malice and joyous cruelty exhibited by and perpetuated by entire swaths of the Russian military towards civilian non-combatants of all ages (and I do mean all ages) - and the additional fact that their own command structure and officers flat out do not care that these things are happening - simply beggars belief. If you value your mental health, be careful that you don’t look too far into this stuff. I have had trouble sleeping from time to time after some of the things I’ve seen and read.
If you want the diet version that doesn’t make you want to pull your eyes out quite that hard, just check out the reams of documentation and content on the culture and background of hazing and abuse in the Russian military. Allowing that shit to become endemic to your armed forces is how you get a military where unambiguous crimes against humanity are considered “just war things”.
Also, all that stuff is why I struggle mightily to control urges to beat the absolute shit out of anyone who spouts off with the Russian line about “Ukranian Nazis”, or any other Russian apologia or propaganda.
I mean, Ukraine was and remains problematic in some respects, but to cite that as justification for what Russia has done is beyond bad faith.
Russia is super fucked up for what they’ve done to Ukraine. Please don’t think I’m at all defending Russia. It’s just that 2 things can be true at once
I feel like i need to know more about this, is there a few links you can share
If you time-constrain your search to like the first 3-4 months of the war, you’ll have some hits. Particularly, stories from Bucha and a lot of the surrounding towns - that was an early hotspot for that sort of shit.
Apologies, but I’m not going to link anything, because that would require me to find the same articles that were so harrowing in the first place and that would likely send me into a very dark headspace that I do not want to be in right now.