Russian War Crimes in Ukraine -- The Language of Force

"An attempt to split part of the state away means an encroachment at the very existence of the state. Quite obviously, it warrants the use of any weapons. I hope our 'friends' across the ocean realize that."

"If Patriot or other weapons are delivered to the territory of Ukraine along with foreign experts, they certainly make legitimate targets, which must be destroyed."

"They are combatants, they are the enemies of our state and they must be destroyed."

“Honestly speaking, Ukraine is part of Russia. But due to geopolitical reasons and the course of history we had tolerated that we were living in separate quarters and had been forced to acknowledge those invented borders for a long time."

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president, now deputy head of Russia's Security Council

 

"Right now, residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at."

"This must not become 'just another day' in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. The world needs greater unity and determination to defeat Russian terror faster and protect lives."

"Every time someone tries to hear the world 'peace' in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes [against Ukraine's civilian population]."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Onlookers watch smoke rise from the fire caused by missile debris falling in the courtyard of a residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district   CNN

 

Civilians are being killed and wounded across Ukraine by long-range Russian bombardment. At the same time Kremlin official Dmitry Medvedev heralded the news that Russian forces were prepared to repell the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive scheduled for this spring. Last year Ukrainian authorities established hundreds of 'points of invincibility', in reality aid stations where residents of Donetsk province could have access to food, charge their cellphone and enjoy some warmth. 

A Russian missile struck an aid station in eastern Ukraine with predictable results. Russian attacks are replete with S300 anti-aircraft missiles, not aimed at military bases but directly at civilian enclaves. The civilians who were killed at the aid station were refugees. The winter artillery war continues with Russian forces  using air-launched missiles, exploding drones and sliding bombs in several regions. 

An overnight rocket and artillery barrage and airstrikes hit the town of Bilophillia in Sumy province in the northeastern region. While in southern Ukraine, Russian shelling in the city of Kherson killed and wounded civilians and as well in the town of Bilozerka just a day after President Zelenskyy had visited the region.

Rescuers carry a body from residential buildings destroyed by a Russian missile strike

 

With the arrival of warmer spring weather and new weapons in hand from the West, including tanks, Ukrainian forces are preparing for a counteroffensive meant to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine. "Our General Staff is addressing all that", scoffed Medvedev; any Ukrainian attempt to recapture Crimea illegally annexed in 2014, could, he asserted, trigger a nuclear response from Moscow. 

This is reflective of Russia's security doctrine which envisions the use of its atomic arsenal responding to a nuclear attack or one with conventional weaponry threatening "the very existence of the Russian state". Western experts operating weapons like the U.S.-produced Patriot air defence missile system given to Ukraine could be targeted, suggested Medvedev.  Russia knows well that Ukrainian soldiers received training in the U.S. despite which Russian officials often allude to foreign instructors in Ukraine.

Medvedev revealed that Moscow may strategize to occupy a long strip of Ukrainian territory stretching all the way to the Polish border. Poland would not stand idly by, unperturbed at witnessing this kind of operation unfold, with no reaction. It is even so without this further kind of action, preparing for the type of scenario that would activate its own military into confronting Russian forces by committing to active combat alongside Ukraine.

Poland knows of a certainty that if Russia succeeds in its mission of eviscerating Ukraine and growing the territory of the Russian Federation accordingly, it would be next on Moscow's expansion agenda, and it has no intention of allowing itself to become another appendage of Russian territorial conquest in a renewal of the Soviet Union.

"Our relations with the West are already worse than they have ever been in history. [German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann asserting Putin would be arrested in the ICC warrant should he visit Germany, a case in point.]"

“Let’s imagine ... the leader of a nuclear power visits the territory of Germany and is arrested. [It would amount to a declaration of war against Russia.] In this case, our assets will fly to hit the Bundestag, the chancellor’s office and so on."

“I have no illusions that we could communicate with them [Western politicians] again any time soon. It makes no sense to negotiate with certain countries and blocs — they only understand the language of force."

Dmitry Medvedev

Three Russian rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia's Belgorod region are seen at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine   CNN