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Jesus. How is torture and rape as widespread and prominent as it is in this war? This is not normal.
What does this say about Russian people that such a high percentage of their armed forces are so perverted, sadistic and vile?
Doesn't make it any better but rape was always a part of pretty much any war in human history
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence
I think it's just that we hear a lot more about individual cases in the social media age, but correct me if i'm wrong...
It might just be the last 150 years that humans have tried to sanitize war but the behavior of Russia is notably awful even by medieval standards.
It's way, way more widespread in this war. Also note the distinct lack of torture being committed by the Ukrainians of the captured Russians.
The genocidal behavior is common in other wars, unfortunately, but the high percentage of documented rape and torture of civilians, including elderly and children, is extremely unusual.
It is not, my guy.
Do you have data to back that up? I can image that the Russians deliberately use rape and torture as a kind of weapon to demoralize Ukrainians, though.
The fact that Ukrainians don't seem to rape captured Russians comes down (I assume) to two things:
Ukraine needs NATO support and it would be a really bad look for them if they raped their prisoners
Most soldiers are (straight) men and I think there are a lot more opportunities for the invading Russians to rape than there are for Ukrainians
Yes defend the mass rape and torture, because the Ukrainians have reasons not to rape and torture they're just as bad for not doing it somehow.
Where am i defending rape you fucking nitwit learn to read
You literally just made a "both sides" argument out of thin air in defense of the side doing the mass rape. Justify that however you want to yourself. It has a very clear message.
It’s something that happens when you give people weapons and let them loose in another country knowing there is little oversight or consequences. Just allows the bad guys to finally do what they want. The “regular people” contain an underestimated amount of assholes.
We have other wars to compare this to. The documented cases of rape and torture are unusually high in this war. Maybe it's related to Russia drafting their criminals from prisons to fight for them. Or maybe it's something more profound in the Russian culture.
The prison thing is surely a factor. But is it really that much more than WW2 or Vietnam? We can’t compare it to small wars, this is the biggest war in a long time and it’s based around cultural identity (at least for those at the low levels). If you have a dehumanised enemy, all bets are off.
The stories of atrocities in WWI and WWII include a great deal of kidnapping, public executions and even prolonged torture at prison camps. Vietnam certainly had several documented cases of rape and murders of villagers. But there are not a lot of accounts of soldiers sexually assaulting and torturing entire families in their homes for several days before finally executing many of them. For some reason, there is a mountain of these documented cases in this war. As time goes on, and the list grows, history will show the torture in this war to be unusually perverse and horrific.
There are more documented accounts in this war because it is easier than ever to document and reporting is more socially accepted than it has been in the past. Even today there is shame and blame on the victims, but not nearly as much as in the past.
The rate is probably higher too because of Russia's horrible military training practices.
War rape and other abuses tend to be higher in armies that are experiencing higher-than-normal fear and anxiety. It's why Vietnam for the US, despite being rather middling from an international politics concern, was so filled with abuses - you had a bunch of half-trained scared kids tossed into the jungle with unclear orders, no motivation, and boogeymen behind every tree. Being pressured doesn't excuse atrocities - but it does go some way to explain them. People often react aggressively and irrationally when under pressure.
The situation of Russia here is worse - these half-trained scared kids are being tossed into a somewhat archaic conventional war, meaning that in addition to unclear orders, no motivation, and boogeymen behind every blade of grass, you also have the constant shelling and the ever-present terror of an assault being ordered to keep you pissing your pants. That's not even getting into Chechen blocking detachments and the sheer viciousness of many Russian officers.
There's also the practice of dedovshchina, which is... gruesome, and has created a very brutal culture in the Russian military. It's effectively rape and torture as 'hazing' conscripts, and is something that the NCO corps engages in as well. Obviously this is not a good practice for creating professional troops who are less likely to commit horrific atrocities. It's a great (/s) practice for creating damaged kids who think that rape is a way of expressing superiority and ensuring security in the social order.
Russia
Russia has always used state sponsored terror tactics and humanities violations. Just go read up on the way they treated people in their way to Berlin in WW2. It's horrifying. Raping children to death in front of their families is just standard operating procedure for the Russian army and that never stopped being true.
Now, they've used another time honored Russian strategy. They emptied the prisons/gulags to flesh out their front line. Which just feeds into the depravity of the troops who are well known for this kind of behavior already.
It's normal for war situations. The kind of people who become soldiers are almost always open for raping other people when given the chance. If you read about other wars, rape is always very common.
They are programmed into believing that the other country is evil, so that justifies their actions in their own minds.
Soldiers are lost souls.
Not an excuse but the Russian population has been brutalised for a few hundred years and they are culturally warped in a manner known clinically as “Fucked in the head”.
A traumatized dog is a dangerous dog and has to be put down. I'm glad to see that the Ukraine army is doing as such.
Once the war is over, every Russian man that took part in it must be neutralised, it's the only way. Rapists, and those that allow such atrocities, do not deserve to live and must die for the good of others.
How about rehabilitation of the entire nation?!?
The world will neither forget nor forgive what stupid Russia is doing.
How the fuck is their age relevant?
Does the person who wrote this think old women generally don't get raped?
Or that the rape of an old woman is somehow worse than that of a young one?
"Russian troops raped women while their families were forced to listen" gets the same story across, sensationalising victims' details for clicks is gross.
It's to portray Russian soldier as people who doesn't even respect 80 year olds. Similar to when someone kills an 80 year old to steal a bag when all they have to do is take it. The killing is completely unnecessary and shows cruelty. And same thing here, the article is designed to show how cruel Russian soldiers are who doesnt even leave 80 year olds alone.
That's my interpretation.
Otherwise yes, of course young women are raped much more then 80 year old wimen. That's why it's considered extra cruel, and that's why they are pointing it out.
It reinforces that the rapes are done for the terror factor of victims beyond those that are raped and not because the soldiers are horny or whatever other stupid excuse.
I think almost any crime against the elderly or children is generally viewed as worse, with good reason. They're generally more helpless and less able to fight back/run away.
I also find that odd. It makes it almost seem as if raping elderly women is something that requires extra mention. So that nobody assumes that we are talking about the "normal", "understandable" rape of younger women. It's seriously fucked up.