cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6267965
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“A Russian soldier came to her house in May 2022, smashed her face with his rifle butt and broke her teeth, slashed her stomach with a knife, and raped her. He then stole her bicycle and left her a Kalashnikov bullet as a souvenir.”
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“How can you look in the eyes of this 75-year-old woman and say there won’t be punishment for what that Russian soldier did to you?” said Kovalenko, her own eyes wet with tears.
The 38-year-old [Ukrainian documentary-maker Alisa Kovalenko] from Zaporizhzhia was one of a group of four Ukrainian survivors of sexual violence and activists who came to London last week to lobby MPs, members of the House of Lords, and Foreign Office officials to try to get British support against the proposed amnesty.
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Soldiers don’t make the decision to keep fighting in this context. If Putin decides to retreat, the soldiers don’t go “whelp, if we keep fishing we can’t be prosecuted for war crimes” and ignore orders.
Large scale warfare isn’t the same as a single battle where there is a fear that surrender is worse than fighting to the death.