Dozens dead in Bucha: The cruelty must not go unpunished

The reports from Bucha show that this war has also killed every spark of humanity, decency and dignity. Russian President Putin must be held accountable for his crimes.

With the withdrawal of Russian troops from the greater Kyiv area, the extent of the destruction gradually becomes clear. However, the many ruins of dwellings and civilian buildings in the villages and towns surrounding the Ukrainian capital are almost the least of the damage. The willfully destroyed civilian infrastructure in Ukraine will eventually be rebuilt, newer and more beautiful than before.

But the damage to the psyche of the people who have witnessed this horror, who have seen their family members, friends and neighbors shot dead, or fallen victim to Russian tank cannon fire and cruise missile bombing of residential areas, that damage is hardly repairable. After just six weeks, the war has traumatized entire generations of Ukrainians – and the end of the war is not yet in sight.

Perfidious lies by Putin and Lavrov

But the truism is already being confirmed that in war truth dies first, followed by every spark of humanity, decency and dignity. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as the generals of the Russian armed forces, still claim that only military targets are fired on in what they call “a special military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine”.

Even in the face of eyewitness reports and evidence of atrocities committed by Russian soldiers against the Ukrainian civilian population, they are trying to justify their senseless war with perfidious lies.

Destruction with the aim of securing power

The real fascists are in Moscow. In one fell swoop, Putin and the other leading politicians in his regime destroyed the international law and order that had been painstakingly built since the Second World War, with the aim of securing their own power.

Because a prosperous Ukraine in the neighborhood, whose people saw their future in a democratic country with the free basic values ​​of the European Union and aspired to the protective shield of the western defense alliance, NATO, became a threat to Putin’s power, because the Russian people too could at some point aspire to go this route.

Previous sanctions are not enough

The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Carla del Ponte, has called for an international arrest warrant for Putin. Even if such an undertaking should have no prospect of success, she is right in her claim. The whole world must oppose the regime in Moscow more vigorously. Politically and economically. From now on, the West must stand in the way of Putin’s desires more vigorously.

The current economic sanctions are not sufficient to achieve this. It is also necessary to sanction the energy sector, because only that would really hit the ruling clique in Moscow.

We have to accept the economic consequences of stopping gas imports, otherwise we will soon have the destruction that we see today in Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel near Kyiv. First in Warsaw, Vilnius and Riga and later in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich.