3 years of war in Ukraine

Human rights must not be reduced to a laughing stock of the European provinces. Europe must now urgently make up for its reprehensible failures and take tougher measures.

The image has been generated using artificial intelligence.

 

Europe must look at these figures[1] today

Three years ago, Ukraine was the largest country in geographical Europe, with a peaceful population of 40 million people striving for democracy.

The Russian war of aggression since the early morning of February 24, 2022, triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Well over 10 million citizens were bombed out of their sleep and driven into panicked flight for sheer survival.

Since the war began, the population of Ukraine has not gone a day without bombings – up to 60,000 artillery shells alone every day. Infrastructure, schools and hospitals are being bombed. No electricity, no heating, no school lessons, no medical help – all of this has been part of everyday life in Ukraine for 3 years. Today, around 13 million Ukrainian citizens are dependent on humanitarian aid in their daily struggle for survival, and Ukraine is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

At least 45,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 12,654 civilians were killed, including women, half of them elderly people and 673 children.

At least 370,000 soldiers of the Ukrainian Defense Army were seriously wounded, as were 27,000 civilians, including at least 670 children.

About 20,000 Ukrainian children were abducted to Russia and given up for adoption there or raised as patriotic Russians in children’s homes. Russia has not provided any information about them.

Another 30,000 Ukrainian civilians are missing, including 14,000 male civilians who are in Russian captivity. Russia has not provided any information about them. 95 percent of those returning from prisoner exchanges report severe torture in Russian captivity.

 Human rights – an achievement of civilization after the Second World War

The Second World War cost the lives of to an estimated 80 million people and its atrocities revealed the deepest abysses of humanity. In 1948, out of this horror, humanity was able to agree on the basic values ​​of a future civilization, the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, under which such hell should not be repeated.

The Ukraine in particular, in its position between Hitler and Stalin as a “bloodlands” (Timothy Snyder), had the most deaths in the Second World War.

Three years ago, 74 years later or almost three generations later, the horrors of war are no longer in our own bones and even three years after the start of the Russian war of aggression, the loud outcry of the international community of values ​​has faded into a rather whining discourse.

War criminal Putin

But there is no reason for whining and moaning. In fact, the Russian president has clearly triggered all the most serious and serious crimes against human rights with his attack order on February 24, 2022 and the three-year war and has once again enforced the right of the strongest.

Dealmaker Trump

At this level of the strong, he is now meeting with the “new sheriff in town”, the president of the world power that, like no other country, stood for the observance of human rights, democracy and freedom.

Unmasked European values ​​policy

Under the cross of Ukraine, the two strong men are now negotiating a “peace” in which the weak are relegated to the waiting bench, even to the dock. Snubbed-praised, hectic-slow, strong-weak, together-disunited, Europe is now sliding back and forth on the bench.

Not least exposed and unmasked, because how often in recent years has it left its value-oriented policy aside on mission abroad and put business first? How much has it made itself unbelievable, even ridiculous, and thus encouraged the rise of dictators in the world?

At the end of 2023, Turkey’s Azerbaijani brother president stated quite openly for the new hub of world trade in the South Caucasus-Caspian region (Russia, China, Iran, Turkey and many others) that one could either stick to their way of doing business (without interference from Western value politics) or otherwise be “out of the game”. A short time later, he formulated it again very clearly in the spirit of the great dictators of the region: Larger states must take care of their own international law themselves… Everyone must take care of their own business. That is the best way of working together, the “masks have long since fallen”.

Europe must now urgently take tougher measures

So is Europe rightly being held accountable for its ignorance of these developments? And is it even partly to blame for the Russian war of aggression? For the hell that 40 million Ukrainians have been through for three years? These are questions that could rightly be investigated.

While the most important question, which stands above all else, does not require any investigation into its truthfulness and criminal nature. Exactly three years ago, the Russian president ordered a war of aggression against 40 million Ukrainians in the middle of Europe that violated international law.

In a civilized world, there are clear international legal templates for this crime, which were not for nothing set in stone after the Second World War to protect humanity from itself:

Investigation of war crimes, punishment and conviction of the perpetrators, release of all prisoners and deportees, reparations payments, ensuring that it is not repeated.

Human rights are the cornerstone of a civilized society and Europe has an urgent duty not to turn them into a provincial laughing stock for the new sheriffs, dealmakers and war criminals of this world.

To do this, it urgently needs to take a tougher stance today, not least because of its own reprehensible failings. Europe must now urgently take tougher measures.

 

[1] Sources: Official data from relevant UN departments, Ukrainian authorities. Minimum figures, actual numbers are estimated to be much higher.

 

Carmen Krusch-Gruen