The possession of a nuclear weapon makes Russia ignore the international law norms, while Ukraine’s foreign partners have to behave very cautiously, political pundit Igor Boțan stated in a public debate hosted by IPN. According to him, the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam is a desperate action by Russia aimed at forcing Ukraine to accept an armistice. The expert also said that the scale of the Kremlin’s desperate actions can extend given that Russia’s plan to conquer Kyiv in three days failed.
Designed to hamper the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam caused flooding on thousands of square kilometers and left hundreds of thousands of people without drinking water, thousands of bodies of animals in a state of decay and generated a real ecological and humanitarian catastrophe. According to Igor Boțan, Russia’s abominable action is aimed at camouflaging the Kremlin’s military failure.
“We can anticipate an epidemiological catastrophe. This crisis will be felt also by the Republic of Moldova, southern Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria. The European Union reacted immediately and described this action as war crime, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. The senior administration of Russia was sure that it will be a walk up to Kyiv where they will install a puppet regime. When the Ukrainians fought back, they found themselves in a disastrous situation and now take actions that are nothing but an attempt to hide the failure in this campaign that is dishonorable for them. This pushes them towards the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, such as the deportation of Ukrainian children, which is a crime against humanity. All the possible crimes that generate real catastrophes are witnessed and these all started from a military adventure,” stated Igor Boțan.
He noted that being isolated at foreign level and with considerable losses in the war, Russia will try to strain a point so as to make Ukraine return to the negotiating table and accept an armistice.
“Their military strategy is a failure. The Russians still call their actions in Ukraine a military operation, not a war. The Constitution of Russia is being violated. We see private military companies whose leaders, in accordance with the criminal legislation of Russia, should be jailed. Very weird things happen after the Kremlin’s initial plan to conquer Kyiv in three days, to create New Russia, to strip Ukraine of access to the Black Sea and to establish a puppet regime in Kyiv failed. Now Russia resorts to unimaginable actions,” stated the permanent expert of IPN’s project.
According to Igor Boțan, being a nuclear power, Russia dares to act against all international law norms. The behavior of the administration from the Kremlin is justified by a large part of the Russian citizens who support the idea of Russia’s supremacy over other nations.
“The possession of a nuclear weapon makes Russia behave as is behaves, to ignore international law norms. The big problem resides in the way in which society in Russia is educated and in the effects of propaganda. The exclusivism of Russians as a nation is cultivated and this exclusivism enables them to behave as we see. We see that here, in the Republic of Moldova, we are very careful when we pronounce on the developments and see protests against the withdrawal of the licenses of TV channels that are extensions in the Republic of Moldova of Russian channels that promote such messages as “full destruction of the Ukrainians”, “destruction of the Ukrainian state”, “drowning of Ukrainian children”. These are crimes committed at present. As long as they have the nuclear weapon and use it as a cudgel, the international community is in a big dilemma and very cautiously tries to help Ukraine,” said Igor Boțan.
The public debate entitled “Kakhovka Dam: Why are laws and customs of war powerless?” was the 13th installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
