Editorial of the “World”. Civil populations trapped in bombed cities, massive destruction of residential buildings, maternity transferred to basement, water and cut communications, lacking food. The unsustainable show of the tragedy endured by the Ukrainians since the invasion of their country by Russia, on February 24, aroused in Europe a strong wave of solidarity. MANIFESTATIONS, COLLECTIONS OF EQUIPMENT AND SUBJECT PRODUCTS, HRIVER HUNDRIES Thousands of refugees testify to a salutary commitment of European civil society. Failure to stop the Russian offensive, the urgency, however, is to allow civilians to evacuate the war zones.
President Vladimir Putin has no more respect for humanitarian law than it has for international law as a whole. Saturday, March 5, then Sunday, two ceasefire negotiated to allow civilians to flee the port city of Maroupol, besieged and pounded, were violated. Each time, the bombings resumed at the moment when the populations tried an exit. The gathering points were targeted, most buses that were to be used for destroyed evacuation.
Monday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the opening of several humanitarian corridors and the establishment of local ceasefire in order to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, as well as cities of Kharkiv, Maroupol and Soumy, plagued with violent fighting. The evacuation routes planned by Moscow only allow civilians to leave their country to Russia or Belarus, de facto occupied by the Russian forces: the alternative that is offered to them is either to remain under the bombs or to refuge in enemy territory. These restrictions are not acceptable.
Total war
Just title, Sunday, Emmanuel Macron had called Vladimir Putin to respect international law on the fundamental point of the protection of civilians and the transport of the aid, during a telephone conversation, and had requested the Bombardment stop. The Russian President, by rejecting the fault on the Ukrainians, to whom he belongs according to him to leave the population coming out of cities, adds cynicism to inhumanity. The increasingly blind violence overlooking Ukraine dramatically evokes the past behavior of the Russian army: the two wars in Chechnya (1994-1996 and 1999-2000) of an incredible brutality, which is are resolved by the massive destruction of the capital, Grozny, and the seat of Aleppo, during the civil war in Syria, in 2016, during which the Russian aviation did not hesitate to bombard hospitals.
In the pursuit of its proclaimed objectives – the “denazid” of Ukraine, its “neutralization” and, in the end, the total control of a country that it does not consider as such – Vladimir Putin Displays the contempt for his diet for human life, whether it is that of civilians or that of his troops. The resistance of the Ukrainians who have failed his initial strategy of the Blitzkrieg, the Russian President is now engaged in a total war, whose civilians are the first victims. Even nuclear power plants do not appear safe from military operations. Destruction, carnage, exodus – already nearly 2 million people on exile roads – now is likely to add a huge humanitarian catastrophe.