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Blood on our hands

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To be honest, I don't know quite what to think of this, but I'm sure the images will be picked up quickly by the international news services.  A number of young men and women stripped down and waded into the red-dyed pond in front of the Russian Embassy in protest of the latest atrocities coming out of Ukraine.  The blood-soaked pond was the idea of Berta Tilmantaitė, Neringa Rekašiutė, Rūta Meilutytė and Aurelija Urbonavičiutė.  Rūta's solo swim yesterday was enough in my opinion, but others wanted to take advantage of the situation this morning to display their indignation in front of Russian diplomats.  Unfortunately, it just comes across as some strange baptism.  

I worry that there will be a lot of virtue signaling in the weeks ahead.  It is a cause that has captured the imagination of the world.  Everyone wants to voice his or her frustration and anger, turning such moments into viral memes and videos that serve mostly to draw attention to individual protests.  Meanwhile, the war lingers on with no end in sight.

The harrowing images coming out of Bucha and other Kyiv oblast towns is enough to give even the most hardened soul pause.  It serves to remind us just how brutal this regime is in Moscow.  This massacre give you a better idea just how vicious Putin's army was in Aleppo and Grozny.  He is a man who seems to have no limitations in his relentless and unredeemable quest for power.  The only question is how do we stop him?

We are finally seeing some contrition from EU leaders who appeased the Kremlin all these years, despite the many warnings from Eastern Europeans.  The belief was that Putin could be reasoned with, but the latest atrocities dispel any such notion.  Once again, the Kremlin refuses to acknowledge its war crimes.  Sergei Lavrov and others claim the images were staged to make the Russian army look bad and deflect attention away from the "peace talks" going on in Turkey.   

Russians are having a hard time coming to terms with these disturbing images, as they have long regarded Ukrainians as their brothers and sisters.  They refuse to believe their army could have done this to people, so the propaganda coming out of the Kremlin is working for the time being.  However, at some point they will have to come to terms with the mounting atrocities throughout Ukraine - an estimated 4500 registered war crimes to date.

Hard to say whether this will finally be the tipping point in this war.  The West announced more sanctions but NATO has yet to consider military intervention.  More weapons will be sent, but there isn't much Ukraine can do except hold its ground.  There is no way to mount an offensive to reclaim lost ground with the types of weapons it has.  They need fighter jets and longer range missiles to push Russian forces out of Mariupol and back to the other side of the Azov Sea.  So far, NATO countries have refused to give Ukraine such offensive weapons.

There is the belief this war can be contained, but to what end?  The devastation is already beyond the pale.  How much more before the blood is on our hands as well?

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