Silence is complicity in the face of Russia’s barbaric war crimes

Editorial: As President Zelensky pointed out, there have been aspects of the bloody, medieval campaign that went beyond mere collateral damage

The pictures and accounts of survivors in places such as Bucha and Mariupol speak for themselves (AFP via Getty)

Even if only a fraction of what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations Security Council was true, it would be evidence of a war of aggression conducted by Russia with the deliberate intention of terrorising the people of Ukraine.

Indeed, as President Zelensky pointed out, there have been aspects of the barbaric, medieval campaign that went beyond mere collateral damage and into the kind of killing for fun that history associates with notorious mass murderers. Even with a poorly motivated, badly equipped, undisciplined conscript army, it is difficult to believe such crimes could take place.

It is, unfortunately, all too easy to believe that they were approved, or acquiesced in, by local officers, senior commanders, and Vladimir Putin himself. It is what happens when you demonise an entire nation with an absurd claim that they are all Nazis determined to destroy Russia.