Ukraine crisis: People vs. chaos

The Ukraine people are in a quagmire! The Russian people are in a quagmire! The EU is in a quagmire! The world at large is in a quagmire! All because of man's insanity and failure to negotiate and reason for peace but rather decided to allow the massacre of thousands of innocent civilians to resolve issues. For most people, "who is to blame and why” is a questionable subject where truth is often lost in the translation; the Ukrainian-Russian conflict is one of them! If sanity prevailed, it could have been avoided but it was not meant to be!

The notion that "freedom” needs blood to sprout is hogwash. Each day passing, millions of people are glued to their television screens watching the ugly theatre of war atrocities unfolding in front of their eyes. Common sense by the EU and superpowers seems non-existent in the very heart of Europe. Instead, they use all sorts of spin and fake news to win over support for their own political agendas with plenty of cash for arms to sustain a bloody but doomed war.

The real truth is nowhere to be found! Yet, deep in the ashes of despair there exists a sliver of hope — being the last casualty of war — in which sanity may prevail to end the bombardment and killing spree of the innocent.

Meanwhile, the sight of hundreds of women and children on the move trying to escape death and devastation is heart breaking. Among the wandering crowds, the sick and the old make up mile-long trails of people trekking in bitterly cold conditions to escape the horrors of man's stupidity.

The Ukrainian-Russian conflict is inexcusable but also shameful for the EU institution that utterly failed to prevent the start of such a crime in the heart of Europe. The EU Commission has chosen passiveness rather than take leadership to mediate and avoid the tragedy.

While all males are enlisted to fight the Russian army, millions of refugees and displaced persons-mostly women, the old and children-roam across the land to reach safety into neighbouring countries! The UN reported there are more 3.5 million refugees seeking refuge out of Ukraine as well as over 10 million displaced persons in their own country. That's insanity!

Hanging on to power by a regime in a ruined country paved with graves offers no consolation for those Ukrainian families mourning their dead! The idea of martyrdom for "country and glory” remains a myth of the past and has no place in a sane democratic society where peace and negotiated solutions provide higher rewards than the brutality of war.

Double standards

The Secretary-General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg keeps on raising the stakes with his animated threats and warnings of a World War III at every given opportunity. Meanwhile, the USA, EU and UK have unilaterally imposed punitive sanctions on Russia and oligarchs including Putin himself. There are also considerations that Putin and Russian government officials be prosecuted for "crimes against humanity” at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Such moves, display the hallmarks of classic political hypocrisy! Under those same terms one can equally argue that:

• Turkey should be prosecuted for "crimes against humanity” committed during its 1974 invasion and occupation of Cyprus using illegal napalm bomb and killing over 6,500 Greek Cypriots;
• the United States also should be prosecuted for war crimes committed in Vietnam using Agent Orange chemical warfare, and its role in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other countries!

In disrespect for human lives, thousands of civilians were killed and justified as "collateral damage”.

Regardless of which media or side a person listens to, one gets a different view of the real reasons behind the blame games of the war atrocities. Without any transparency, misinformation is tactfully applied to mislead but also to justify government decisions for ulterior motives.

On April 13, 2014 for example, the Ukrainian government issued a decree authorising the creation of civilian "voluntary paramilitary units” for up to 12,000 people. Ukraine is probably the only nation to have a Neo-Nazi friendly regiment in its armed forces. Such unconventional policy raises eyebrows of ulterior motives and as to why so?

Subsequently, the far-right extremist, neo-Nazi nationalist group The Azov* Order-created on May 2014 in Mariupol-joined forces with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and on June 2014 systematically attacked Russian pro-separatists in the south eastern region of Ukraine. As a result of atrocities committed, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in March 2016, linked the Azov* Regiment for "war crimes, mass looting, rapes and the illegal detention and torture of people”.

Those attacks continued for eight years and cemented the prelude to the present bombardment of Ukraine. Watching the daily destruction of cities and war carnage, including the psychological trauma suffered by millions of people, is unforgivable, to say the least!

Human Trafficking

However, from one tragedy another one tragedy unfolds in Ukraine and it's just as equally devastating as the war itself! That's human trafficking and modern day slavery!

At the border crossings, it has been reported by the local police that people traffickers have crawled out of their slimy burrows to capitalize on the suffering of refugees seeking shelter and protection. Millions of Ukrainians on the move and thousands of unescorted young women, boys and girls congregating at the crossings for safe passage provide the perfect conditions for exploitation. Criminal traffickers have set up their traps there to pounce on the unsuspecting arrivals to replenish their stockpile.

For those caught in a web of exploitation ultimately end up as victims of a most despicable and dehumanizing practice, one that destroys dignity, self-respect and inner soul!

Indeed, human trafficking of Ukrainian women and youngsters for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour has become a by-product of the country's conflict-fuelled crisis. At the same time, Ukraine has been singled out by anti-trafficking humanitarian agencies as a source of transit and a destination country for a transnational human trafficking network. Children are also being trafficked both internally and globally for sexual exploitation, forced begging and involuntary servitude in the agriculture industry.

The criminal gangs targeting refugees resort to all sorts of trickery to entice their victims. Conniving men and women traffickers know precisely how to approach the traumatized young women and boys including the unescorted under aged. Tired and disoriented the vulnerable soon become the perfect prey for traffickers offering them security, money and safe passage far away from the Ukrainian killing frenzy.

Once the victims enter a car they are as good as dead and rarely seen again: they end up in isolated farms, sweat shops, sleaze bars and brothels or branded as sex slaves and traded among criminals like cattle! In time, they become the forgotten war victims of Ukraine and not much talked about by the mass media hungry for sensationalizing news.

Another integral sector of human trafficking is the sale of human organs. Removing organs of trapped victims and modern slaves is a widespread crime by transnational criminal groups. The illicit trading of organs has become a lucrative global industry, which has relatively low rates of law enforcement. Countries like the USA and Canada do not recognize human organ trading as a form of trafficking, yet it roughly amounts to 10% of all transplantations in a $150 billion a year global human trafficking and slave industry.

A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recognized that the most common form of human trafficking (79%) is women for sex and prostitution and (20%) the exploitation of children in commercial sex. What is even more shocking, cunning women grooming and trafficking other women, young girls and boys have now become the norm! The recent sex trafficking case in the federal court of Manhattan by British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is a prime example and only the tip of the iceberg!

This despicable practice has to be considered as the greatest violation of human rights ever, one that leaves a permanent scar on people's lives!

Today, the Ukrainian refugees are at acute risk of exploitation. With millions of people on the move, Europe is facing a serious social problem and bordering countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia are taking the brunt of the refugee influx. Ironically, those countries are also identified as haven for well-organized criminal organisations with global connections in human trafficking and other related illegal activities.

Ultimately, the Ukrainian-Russian conflict will be recorded as Putin's historical legacy and Zelenskiy's failure to protect Ukrainians from the ravages of chaos for choosing conflict rather than to negotiate; meanwhile, the EU bankers' institution also failed to stop a conflict from starting in the heart of Europe, a Europe peddled as the cradle of "Democracy, Peace and Human Rights!”

Among the maze of political self-interests, it's crystal clear that no action that takes a single life of another person can be excused or justified; it's simply called the murder of the masses in madness of conflict! The rest is now up to the people to deal with their own leadership; to praise them or not to praise them! That is the one question any rational and sane person would ask! The end result rests with the people!

However, at times of crisis there is nothing that it serves better than the Merchants of Death, the arms industry but also the trans global banking system of an Elite Power hidden behind governments in a "me, me and me” desensitized society that soon forgets the plight and pain of others.

There are certainly no angels but devils throughout this chaos and madness!

*banned in Russia