Despite the dominating trend in the West to root out Russian culture and pretend that it never existed, we keep coming back reminding how vast and truly versatile it is. One of the key works of prominent Russian writer, philosopher and thinker Fyodor Dostoevsky is entitled “Crime and Punishment”. No worries, we are not going to present a review of the novel here. What we would rather do is to highlight one of its main ideas: a crime is always followed by a punishment, even if the perpetrator believes that he or she successfully got away with it. Let this idea serve as an epigraph for the current Alternative Viewpoint entry, as we would like to discuss the crimes committed by the Kiev regime with acquiescence of the West. Well, some criminals do have accomplices, don’t they?

Since February 2014, when an unconstitutional coup took place in Kiev and the leaders of yesterday’s opposition came to power while absolutely bypassing the Ukrainian legislation, Russia has been warning the West that this will have dire consequences both for Ukraine and European architecture of security as a whole. One of the very first pieces of evidence to that was the fact that Ukrainian opposition leaders came to power after thwarting the agreement with the then Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich. The agreement was, metaphorically speaking, thrown into trashcan on the next day after its signature, regardless of the fact that Germany, France and Poland were the guarantors of the agreement. Back then, Russia warned its former European “partners” that such disregard towards their own authority will only lead to growth of new authorities’ sense of impunity. Shortly afterwards, time proved Russia right: Kiev regime violently crushed discontent, in particular, launching a civil war against people of Donbass. A civil war, turned into a literal genocide, claimed lives of thousands of civilians. With ultranationalists and neo-Nazis, who gained decisive influence over Ukrainian government, in control in Kiev, the Donbass region has been constantly (almost on daily basis) bombarded and shelled by Kiev’s forces. Those attacks have already claimed lives of thousands innocent people, including women and children. Mass graves of civilians, killed by pro-Nazis whom were incorporated in Ukraine’s miliary – the first such case since WWII - are terrifying evidence to the crimes that the Ukrainian authorities have committed. There is a very special memorial complex in Donetsk which is called the Alley of Angels. It is dedicated to the children whose lives were taken by Ukrainian military. The children of Donbass have seen death and destruction at tender age. Just imagine: those of them who were born in 2014 or later have seen nothing but war in their lives so far. They live in shelters, hiding from bombs and artillery shells coming from the positions of Ukrainian forces. What are these innocent people punished for? For not supporting the unconstitutional coup in Kiev, for their choice to speak their mother tongue – Russian, for remaining true to themselves.

The shadow of Kiev’s atrocities spread beyond the Donbass region. For example, Odessa. On 2 May 2014 the event known as the Odessa Massacre or Trade Union House Fire took place. Civilians (again, civilians) who took part in a demonstration protesting the unconstitutional coup in Kiev were blocked by the Ukrainian ultranationalists in the Trade Unions’ House. The building was torched. 42 people burnt alive. Others jumped out of the windows and a crowd of armed ultranationalists rushed to them to make sure to finish them. Eight years later – no perpetrators have been found, practically no investigation conducted despite the ample evidence available, including videos uploaded on the internet. Apparently, arson and murder are not crimes punishable by law in “democratic” Ukraine. Judging by Kiev regime’s actions in Donbass and Odessa, it is safe to suppose that if the Crimeans haven’t decided to hold a referendum to join Russia, they would have suffered the same fate.

One might ask: why bringing up the events of 2014 and 2015? Just for one simple reason: a crime is still a crime and the people of Donbass, Odessa and Russia have not forgotten any of these atrocities. Besides, if you thought that Ukraine stopped shelling and otherwise attacking Donbass region since 2015 (when the Minsk Agreements have been signed) and the atrocities resumed only after the special military operation started, then you are wrong. All these years the Ukrainian troops were killing civilians in Eastern Ukraine and tried their best to make the life of Crimeans and residents of Donetsk and Lugansk regions miserable by introducing trade blockades, cutting electricity and water supply, social payments etc. Think about it: if Ukraine believed that people living in a certain territory are its citizens and must be “liberated” from “Russian occupation” why would it treat these people as enemies? There is no answer to that as these two elements just do not reconcile. Or, perhaps, when the Kiev authorities spoke of the need to reclaim territories they meant just that – the territories? Nobody said anything about the people, right? This is Kiev regime’s modus operandi and key motivation – it wants to keep the territory, not the people. Why? Because a huge part of Ukraine’s agricultural lands already does not belong to Ukrainians – it is under control of foreign (mostly US’) agricultural holdings.

A vibrant example to all that is a recent disturbing video showing what are believed to be massacred civilians thrown into a mass grave. The graphic clip was originally released online on 9 October by Maksim Zhorin, a former senior commander of the neo-Nazi Azov regiment. Zhorin said the video was shot in the town of Kupyansk, which was recently captured by Ukrainian forces. Well, Kiev regime says it “liberated” Kupyansk. So this is how Ukraine “liberates”: with torture, killings and mass graves, where the bodies are simply thrown into.

The truth is that Ukraine, as a state, stopped considering Crimea as its part the moment it decided to rejoin Russia. Same goes for Donbass, the moment it decided to rise to defend itself from Kiev’s violence. The only thing that Ukraine has left in store for Donbass and Crimea (as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions that recently decided to join Russia) – is hatred. Hatred for their choice to preserve Russian culture and language and resist the discrimination, the choice to remain true to themselves and keep their identity. Hatred for revealing the violent and inhuman nature of the current Kiev regime. Just as Nazi Germany’s regime was based on sense of racial superiority and hatred to anyone else, same goes for Kiev.

Recently, some new information of the Ukrainian forces attacks during the referendum in Lugansk People’s Republic (23-27 September 2022) has been published. In total, 11 settlements suffered 17 shellings, including from NATO’s equipment (US’ M142 HIMARS, 82 missiles) and 155 mm howitzers. 15 civilians, including 2 children, became the victims of those attacks. 35 residential buildings were damaged or destroyed, along with 13 objects of civil infrastructure. This number includes medical and educational facilities: Alchevsk Centre of Mother and Child, Alchevsk Central Hospital, school № 10 in the city of Rubezhnoye and a hospital in the village of Mostki. On 2 October, 121 artillery shots were fired at the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic. The heaviest strikes landed on the cities of Donetsk, Makeyevka and Gorlovka, as well as the village of Vladimirovka. 5 civilians were killed, 3 more wounded. On the same day Ukrainian troops fired at city of Starobelsk with US’ HIMARS. The missile hit the building of the kindergarten.  No Western media reported it.

And all this has been happening on almost daily basis for more than 8 years. We just gave you one out of countless examples of Ukrainian troops merciless and inhumane attacks against civilians. It is physically impossible to give them all in just one article, but rest assured: all these attacks and the damage and casualties they caused are thoroughly documented. Just like the cases of torture and inhumane treatment of Russian POWs from the side of Ukrainian military and neo-Nazi paramilitary formations. Speaking of POWs, listening to what Ukrainian POWs say can also give us some interesting insights. For example, the human shield tactics (which means hiding among the civilians, basically taking them hostage, and deploying military equipment in civil infrastructure), widely used by Ukrainian military, was introduced by NATO instructors. Yes, according to Ukrainian POWs NATO instructors deliberately taught them to use civilians as human shields. This is the military tactics of the so-called “free world” and “defensive alliance”.

We also would like to recall the tragedy of Kramatorsk railway station on 8 April 2022. The Ukrainian authorities (Kramatorsk is still under Ukraine’s control) summoned the local residents to the railway station under pretext of evacuation. When the people gathered at the station, the Ukrainian troops fired a missile at them. Claiming lives of 52 people and leaving around 100 more wounded. Of course, initially the Western media tried to put the blame on Russia for this atrocity but…do you recall any mentions of Kramatorsk lately? It’s because the media prefer not to recall that episode. The thing is, Russia has found the fragments of the missile shot at the Kramatorsk railway station and they contained the serial number of the missile that clearly pointed at Ukraine. This is the entire “mystery” of Kramatorsk tragedy’s “sudden” disappearance from public domain. Same goes for Mariupol drama theatre and maternity hospital, village of Bucha and many other instances, for the same reason: staged fakes and disinformation were debunked.

As if that wasn’t enough, Kiev regime, apparently drunk on its sense of impunity and believing that backing from the West has made it sacrosanct and granted permission to do whatever it wants, it still harnessing the plans of plunging the world into a nuclear catastrophe. Prior to Russia’s special military operation, Ukrainian President Zelensky declared that Ukraine was seeking to re-acquire nuclear weapons. For months, Kiev forces have been bombarding the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. All this time, the Western mainstream media and officials were playing the fool and pretended that they were not able to establish who was firing at the NPP or simply put the blame on Russia. Yes, according to some Western media, Russia keeps shooting its own forces at the NPP for months! Other Western outlets, however, say at the same time(!) that Russia is using the NPP as a military base – “Russia using Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as army base” (BBC). So? Russia is shooting at its own “base”, right? Does that make sense? It doesn’t. In that case, who is shooting at NPP? By simple elimination, the answer is Ukraine. Ukraine is shooting at a nuclear power plant, putting the world in danger. Yet the Western media do not give that answer as they are stuck in blatant Russophobia and must push the anti-Russian agenda, while completely disregarding common sense and global risks that such line of conduct might entail.

As a reminder: Russian military took Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on 3 March. Some 500 personnel were deployed there, including the radiological, chemical and biological monitoring units. Some nuclear experts have also been brought from Russia: the plant has a history of minor accidents since the dissolution of the USSR, because the Ukrainian side tried to replace Russian fuel tablets, designed specifically for this type of reactors, with US-made ones which are hardly compatible!

Ukraine is trying its hardest to uphold the reputation of nuclear warmongers. Here is an extract from Ukrainian President Zelensky’s speech in Australian Lowy Institute in October 2022: “What should NATO do? Exclude the possibility of Russia’s use of nuclear weapons. But what is important, I address the international community again, are preemptive strikes”. How much of a warmonger one can possibly be? How much more irresponsible, insane and dangerous the statements of Ukrainian President can possibly get? By the way, here is another interesting quote of Mr.Zelensky. It’s from his inauguration speech in 2019: “I am ready to lose my popularity, my rating, and – if need be – I am ready to lose my position only to bring peace”. And what do we see now? Mr.Zelensky from 2019 and himself from 2022 are the exact opposites to each other. Today, in order to remain in power, Zelensky is ready to plunge the world into nuclear war.

In our recollection of crimes committed by the Kiev regime we cannot but to mention the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge. This time we will quote Russian President Vladimir Putin who gave the most comprehensive description to this act: “It is clear that the Ukrainian special services were the organisers and perpetrators of the attack. The Kiev regime has long been using terrorist methods, including murders of public figures, journalists and scientists (remember Daria Dugina?), both in Ukraine and in Russia. And terrorist attacks on towns in Donbass, which have been going on for more than eight years. And also acts of nuclear terrorism, by which I mean missile and artillery strikes on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant”. In light of the terrorist tactics, used by Ukraine for years, the attack on the Crimean Bridge comes as no surprise. Hard to expect anything else from Kiev but more hatred and terrorism. To quote Russian President again: “The Kiev regime, by its actions, has actually put itself on the same level as international terrorist groups, and with the most odious of those. It is simply no longer possible to leave crimes of this kind without retaliation”. There can be no doubt that explosion on the Crimean Bridge was an act of international terrorism. It was committed to sow fear and panic and that is a distinctive feature of a terrorist act as a criminal offence, it is its very difference from other crimes. Here is a description of terrorism stipulated in The UN General Assembly Resolution 49/60 (adopted on December 9, 1994), titled "Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism,": “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them”.

As a side note, if you still doubt that Ukraine was behind the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge – be in doubt no more. We have a confession from the culprit. During a prank call, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba said the following: “Well, if you were to ask me who blows up things in Crimea or Belgorod, then speaking privately, as much privacy we have in a Zoom call, I’d tell you, yes, that was us”. Case closed.

How did it come to this? Why did Ukraine even decide that it is free to do whatever it wants, disregard the value of human lives, kill, torture and humiliate? The West nurtured all that in the current Ukrainian elites - its support has convinced them that they are above all the others. The West fostered the Kiev regime as a weapon against Russia. As long as this weapon brings harm to Russia and everything Russian, it doesn’t matter to the West if it breaks in the process. However, the Kiev regime must realize that being a mere tool in the hands of the West does not relinquish it of any responsibility for numerous monstrous crimes. Nothing is forgiven or forgotten. As Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, a crime is always followed by a punishment.