I dont disagree with that. Frankly I dont disagree with most of the war crimes. But I simply cannot excuse forcing people to stay when they had a chance to evacuate so you could use them as human shields, knowing Russia would shoot them. The ONLY thing you get out of this is to say Russia killed civilians/commited a war crime, when by international law, it was not, they were a legitimate target. And the UA made them a legit target.
While this might be true in Mariupol I don’t see anything that it was (anything but true) Bucha. (Edit)
Like I said there could have been things done by Ukrainians in and around Mariupol. I’m not absolving individual units or commanders there. Allow the investigations to continue.
But what do you do about it in the middle of a war? And that you have strong indications both sides might be involved.
You can’t call a time out or throw a flag on the play.
So for me again the question comes back to if Ukrainian troops have perpetrated significant amounts of systemic violations.
If not then keep moving forward.
Reflecting upon this as a local fighter defending your own community or one identical to your own.
If having seen civilian homes or churches or schools bombed while civilians are known to be inside.
Well personally I do not know how I would react to foreign troops a party to that.
Or even more so to other locals who had collaborated with the invading army.
Issues like this used to be much more black and white. You burned them out or drove them from there homes at best, at worst you summarily executed them.
How do you judge people who have seen their communities razed and betrayed by neighbors to the point of death.
Seriously, think about it in this kind of existential situation.
