Who's behind alleged war crimes in Ukraine?

A body with hands bound by white cloth, who according to residents was shot by soldiers, lies in the street in Bucha, Ukraine April 3, 2022. (Photo by Reuters)

It comes into the category of 'stating the obvious' that all sides commit atrocities in war - especially in modern conflicts fought out in urban centers in and around civilians. Indeed war itself is an atrocity, reflective of a complete breakdown in human affairs whenever and wherever it erupts. This is why it is incredibly incumbent on those in positions of power to do everything possible and exert every sinew to avert war through the judicious use of diplomacy.

For this reason, historians worth their salt will look back on the failure to avert the conflict in Ukraine and level an unambiguous j'accuse at the door of Washington, Brussels, London, and Kyiv. Why do I say this? Using Kyiv as a cat's paw, it is from the first three of these capitals that the provocation of Russia has emanated with the expansion of NATO up to Moscow's western border over recent decades.

However, this aspect of the conflict in Ukraine has been covered extensively elsewhere. This article aims to mine the competing narratives over the brutality that has been meted out to POWs and civilians as the conflict continues to unfold with no end in sight at this writing.

The accusation that war crimes have and are being systematically committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians has so colonized Western media coverage of the conflict in recent weeks. You might believe that the Ukrainians are fighting their side of the battle with bows and arrows rather than the vast array of NATO-supplied weaponry flowing into the country since hostilities began.

Putin blames Kyiv for 'crude, cynical provocations' in Bucha

The Russian president says Ukrainian authorities are behind "crude and cynical provocations" in Bucha.

Now Bucha.

In war, it's always the case that certain towns achieve international name recognition and fame for all the wrong and most tragic reasons. Think Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, My Lai during the Vietnam War, Srebrenica in Bosnia, Fallujah in Iraq, Aleppo in Syria, and now Bucha in Ukraine.

Located some 25 km (16 miles) northwest of Kyiv – a pre-conflict population of 36,000 –  Bucha has commanded the world's attention over the murder of civilians, as evidenced in news footage and images of dozens of dead bodies strewn along its war-torn streets. Many victims had their hands tied behind their backs.

Who slaughtered them has been answered with one voice in the West: Russia. Yes, Russia is responsible, notwithstanding that even the Pentagon itself announced that 'atrocities in Ukraine cannot be independently verified.' Then added that the US military has no reason to disbelieve Ukrainian accounts either. The Kremlin has strenuously denied that its forces were responsible for what transpired in Bucha, claiming that the massacre was carried out by Ukrainian forces and blamed on Russia for propaganda purposes.

Let us now turn to what we do know, based on the verifiable information which has thus far come to light:

1. On March 30, Russian forces pulled out of Bucha
2. On March 31, the Mayor of Bucha declares the town 'liberated' while making no mention of atrocities having been committed by the Russians during their occupation
3. Ukrainian forces entered Bucha on April 2
4. On April 3, the Ukraine Ministry of Defense published videos of victims of alleged Russian atrocities

The express purpose of the Azov Battalion and other Ukrainian forces deploying to Bucha in the wake of the Russian withdrawal was set out in an April 2 report published by the Ukrainian news site LB.ua.'Special forces have begun a clearing operation in the city of Bucha in the Kyiv region, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated. The city is being cleared from saboteurs and accomplices of Russian forces.'

The picture that emerges involves Ukrainian forces, in the process of the above-mentioned 'clearing operation' in Bucha, summarily executing hundreds of civilians as alleged 'saboteurs and accomplices of Russian forces.' Further circumstantial evidence supporting this is the images of dead bodies surrounded by Russian aid packages, undoubtedly used as evidence by said Ukrainian forces of cooperation by the civilians involved with their hated enemy.

Interestingly, former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer and UN weapons inspector Scott had the following to say of this horrific event: 'The Ukrainian National Police committed numerous crimes against humanity in Bucha. Biden, shifting blame for the Bucha murders onto Russia, is guilty of aiding and abetting these crimes. Congratulations, America. You've created yet another Presidential war criminal!'

This writer can only agree.

This is not to suggest that Russian forces have not or are not capable of engaging in atrocities. Of course, they are. War is hell, and those involved in it are brutalized beyond measure by the grotesque carnage they witness and find themselves engaging in. This horrific dynamic is intensified still further when the kind of ideological and ethno-nationalist hatred which underpins this particular conflict is added to the mix.

We in the West are being conditioned by one of the most aggressive propaganda campaigns ever mounted into accepting that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is a Marvel comic book superhero. And that Ukraine's armed forces are a force for good, engaged in an existential struggle against the absolute evil represented by Putin and Russia.

Intellectual rigor dictates that we reject such a reductive rendering of what is happening and why until compelling evidence of a kind yet to be supplied forces us not to. This is especially important when those most emphatic in pushing this one-sided narrative sit at the heads of governments whose own legacy of war crimes and atrocities are legion. They have a transparent and vested interest in twisting the truth in pursuit of a specific plan for Russia and Ukraine.

John Wight is an author and political commentator based in Scotland.