Yesterday, Ukrainian fighters besieged in the Azovstal steelworks surrendered to Russian forces, after a battle lasting almost three months. There’s no doubt this was a surrender: the Ukrainian fighters – who belong to the Azov regiment – were taken in buses to Russian-held territory in Eastern Ukraine (as shown above).
However, that’s not the impression you’d get scanning Western media outlets like the BBC, CNN and the New York Times. These outlets described what happened as an “evacuation” marking an “end to the combat mission”. Here are the headlines:
• ‘Mariupol: Hundreds of besieged Ukrainian soldiers evacuated’ – The BBC
• ‘Hundreds of Ukrainian troops evacuated from Mariupol steelworks after 82-day assault’ – The Guardian
• ‘Azovstal steelworks evacuated as Ukraine ends combat mission in Mariupol’ – The Times
• ‘The battle for Mariupol nears end as Ukraine declares ‘combat mission’ over’ – CNN
• ‘Ukraine ends bloody battle for Mariupol; Azovstal fighters evacuated’ – The Washington Post
• ‘Ukrainian authorities declare an end to the combat mission in Mariupol after weeks of Russian siege’ – The New York Times
In war, an “evacuation” is when you send boats, planes or vehicles to transport your own troops away from a hostile location. Dunkirk was an evacuation. It is not when the enemy transports your troops to a location under his control after those troops have surrendered. That’s called a “surrender”.
Despite reporting where the Ukrainian fighters were taken (Russian-held territory), some of the articles above don’t even use the word ‘surrender’. One is reminded of Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf – nicknamed “Comical Ali” – who became known for his preposterous claims about U.S. losses during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Note: this has nothing to do with being ‘pro-Russia’. This is about journalists using language that actually corresponds with reality. Which prompts the question of why? Why are they going around describing things in transparently misleading terms?
I can think of two possible reasons. One is they don’t want to hurt Ukrainian morale. Perhaps Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines read Western media, or at least read what is written about Western media, and there was a concern that if they saw the headline ‘Mariupol Garrison Surrenders’, they might become dispirited.
The second possible reason is they don’t want Western audiences to believe that Ukraine is faltering, as they might then become less willing to support military aid or sanctions. (Note: I’m not saying that Ukraine is faltering – I have no idea who has the upper hand – only that news of a surrender might lead Western audiences to believe that it’s faltering.)
Of the two reasons, I’d suggest the first is more plausible. Maybe every outlet received the same press release with notes like: ‘Keep ‘surrender’ out of the headline. Use ‘evacuation’ instead.’ This is pure speculation, of course, but I don’t know how else to explain why so many outlets used such bizarre language.
Now, I could perhaps understand if it was British troops surrendering. But it wasn’t: the fighters who surrendered were Ukrainian – and from a regiment that just a few years ago Western media outlets were describing as “far-right” and even “neo-Nazi”.
Not only are the media giving us an inaccurate picture of the most serious armed conflict since the Cold War; they’re doing so despite the fact that it’s not even our troops fighting. They’re running interference for a foreign government – and regardless of how just that government’s cause may be, this puts us in very thorny territory.
We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.
Discussion
Comments
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Some information from a sceptic:
I have followed this ‘war’ since 2014. The Ukrainian military have been attacking civilians in Donbas for 8 years, killing c14,000 people. No western leader even attempted a peaceful solution…the Minsk accords were ignored by Ukraine. There are Nazi forces within Ukraine.
Yet many on here ignore or deny this information.
Here here.
It was clear to me this was a surrender and the Ikrainian fighters are now prisoners of war. I fear for how they will be treated by the Russians. I regret we can’t trust the BBC and the rest of our main-stream media to give us honest unbiased news about anything. The problem with that is while they are being dishonest their accusations against the bias in Russian media are worthless. Surely they should realise that and try to recover their position in the world of providing honest news, but whoever has been running BBC news badly in the last 20 years has probably lost that forever. They need new honest news management if intelligent people are ever going to believe them again.
evacuation ,the act of moving people from a dangerous place to somewhere safe.
As the MSM has lied on a massive scale for the past two years what makes you think that it would change now.
I believe nothing that I see or hear about this conflict.
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct.
‘Vadim Shishimarin, a tank commander,pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian in the north-east Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka on 28 February.
“I acknowledge my blame … I ask you to forgive me,” he told the widow, Kateryna Shalipova,
The widow told the court she had heard distant shots fired from their yard and that she had called out to her husband the day he was killed.
“I ran over to my husband, he was already dead. Shot in the head. I screamed, I screamed so much,” she said.
Shalipova said her husband had been unarmed and was dressed in civilian clothes. They had a 27-year-old son and two grandchildren, she added.
Shishimarin is accused of firing several shots with an assault rifle at a civilian’s head from a car after being ordered to do so.
Asked if he had been obliged to follow an order that amounted to a war crime, Shishimarin said “no”.
“I fired a short burst, three or four bullets,” he told the court.
“I am from Irkutsk Oblast [a region in Siberia]. I have two… Read more »
What evidence is there that he is a Russian tank commander? I don’t recall seeing any identity papers produced.
He’s probably a Ukranian actor just like its corrupt president.
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct
‘To the east of Kharkiv in the small village of Malaya Rohan they were digging up the black fertile earth.
Mykhailo Yurchenko was killed when a Russian shell crashed into his home in late March.
His wife Lyudmila buried him alone in a shallow grave in their garden.
With the village under attack, no one could come and help her. She looked on grief-stricken as investigators with the prosecutor’s office exhumed him.
He will now be given a more dignified burial. She says she wishes she hadn’t survived.
“It’s very difficult. I would like to have died with him. To stay with him there.”
Along the village’s pretty rural streets, houses are destroyed or pockmarked with bullet holes. One man showed us his utterly devastated home.
Gennady was born in Russia he said, but said it was now an evil empire. Its soldiers opened up his home and set light to it he said. Fortunately, he and his family had escaped the village in time.
“I will tell you about one small paradox. I am Russian by nationality. I was… Read more »
You are pre-supposing that the Western media originate these articles. In fact I suspect they originate with press releases from the government of Ukraine. The MSM don’t do proper journalism these days. They just rewrite press releases. That is true domestically in the UK – why would it be any different in reporting of the war in Ukraine?
Of course the Ukrainian government is not going to describe it as a “surrender”.
It was not a surrender. How do I know. Because of how it has been covered on Russian state TV the last few days.
Even though the Russian TV stations had their “Mariupol Victory Day” three weeks ago, even a Azovstal Victory Special on Channel 1 RU, the coverage the last few days on Russian TV has not been as if they had some great military victory in Azovstal but as if it has been a humiliating defeat. No white flags on the RU TV footage. (that one propaganda video was staged with coerced POWs). The talking heads on news shows like Большая игра are angry and the genocidal invective against Ukraine has reached levels I have not seen for almost two months.
It sure looks like it was not a “surrender”, i.e a Russian victory when you watch Russian TV. Which some of us have daily since January. Just like we did in the 1980’s and early 1990’s
If you think the western MSM is bad you should see the blatant lies they show on Russian TV.
Russian invaded Ukraine with the intention of wiping it off the map. Putin said so before hand. No different from Poland in 1939.… Read more »
If Western Audiences are accurately informed, they won’t support the proxy war. Simples
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct
Russian forces controlling much of the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions in north eastern Ukraine from late February through March 2022 subjected civilians to summary executions, torture, and other grave abuses that are apparent war crimes.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 65 people between April 10 and May 10, including former detainees, torture survivors, families of victims, and other witnesses. Human Rights Watch also examined physical evidence at the locations where some of the alleged abuses took place as well as photos and videos shared by victims and witnesses.
In 17 villages and small towns in Kyiv and Chernihiv regions visited in April, Human Rights Watch investigated 22 apparent summary executions, 9 other unlawful killings, 6 possible enforced disappearances, and 7 cases of torture. Twenty-one civilians described unlawful confinement in inhuman and degrading conditions.
Human Rights Watch 18 May 22
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct.
Latest UK MOD Intelligence Briefing:
Russia has suspended at least two senior commanders for their performance in the war in Ukraine and a “culture of cover-ups” is rife within its military.
Commanders suspended:
Chief of the General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov remains in post but it is unclear if he has the confidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Scape-goating is prevalent within the Russian military and security system
Many officials involved in the war are increasingly distracted by efforts to avoid personal culpability.
It will be difficult for Russia to regain the initiative under these conditions.
19 May 22
Why? Because it’s very important to the Globalists to pretend that Ukraine is winning in order to maintain support for the war.
Objective and accurate reporting can be found on youtube
Here for example reporting the surrender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcIiiDEOlwo&t=419s
All part of the great reset. There are no truths about anything happening in ukraine/Russia. So how does one report on it?
This is a war of hate between Globalists and Russia which is why the Globalist run Wedtern Governments have been lying to their people. Russia won this war a month ago. Their strategy to avoid civilian deaths, to create humanitarian corridors and to preserve as much of the Ukrainian infrastructure as possible whilst taking out USA bioweapon factories, politicians and the Western trained AZOV murderers has been very well documented by independent journalists like Patrick Lancaster and Gonzalo Lira.
That UK citizens have flown Ukrainian flags supporting their genocide is absolutely shocking. When did history stop being taught in our schools. When did supporting a terrorist regime become more important than searching out your own information. UK Government should be prosecuted for War Crimes and its people should think very carefully about their allegiances. Never have we had such a corrupt and evil Government; it even beats the Blair Regime.
I can’t get that upset about this.
Whatever it’s called, the basic process has been, I think it’s safe to say, accurately described: more than 900 Ukrainian fighters taken to a former prison camp in a Russian-controlled part of Donetsk.
For me that is acceptable in a war situation where we are helping an invaded country against an aggressor.
There is absolutely no equivalence between this and the reporting by Russian media if the roles had been reversed: we all know it would be either total silence or blatant lies.
Alternatively Russia has recognised the breakaway republics (self determination is a UN thing ) and have responded to a request for help against an invader
Bear in mind the Ukrainian forces deployed there are Nazi’s who have been shelling civilians for 8 years
All Ukraine had to do was implement the Minsk agreement and stop their eradication of the Russian language and culture – they choose not to no doubt encouraged by the Democrat presidents of the US whose children appear to have been milking the Ukraine economy with highly paid WFH jobs – cf Hunter Biden – how much western aid has been diverted thus ?
Make me concerned were our money Johnson has pledged is going after all we know Bunter spends money like water
Actually, I think this article has got it wrong. All the MSM channels I watched/listened to yesterday showed Russian troops loading Ukrainian soldiers on to buses and travelling to Russian territory. Much talk about possible prisoner exchange.
Dominate the airspace and you winthe conflict and quite clearly Russia will win. No matter how much money Congress wants to launder over there.
You might be right…..
‘Retired Russian Colonel Khodaryonok says: “The situation from the overall strategic position is that the Ukrainian armed forces are able to arm a million people.
“They’re saying it themselves, that ‘for us, there’s no difficulty in mobilising a million people’.
“The whole issue is to what extent they’re able to supply this army of modern weapons and military hardware.”
He says if Ukraine had no help, it would struggle to do that, but with foreign help they will be equipped in the “near future”, massively expanding Kyiv’s forces.
Mr Khodaryonok goes on to say the situation will “frankly, get worse”.
ROSSIYA 1 17 May 22
‘Ukrainian fighters have blown up an armoured train carrying Russian troops using an explosive device in the occupied southern city of Melitopol, the Ukrainian territorial defence force said today.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
The city of Melitopol in the region of Zaporizhzhia lies in a belt of southern Ukrainian land that was occupied by Russian forces after they invaded on 24 February.
The Ukrainian territorial defence, the reservist branch of the armed forces, said an explosive device detonated directly under… Read more »
With regard to the antepenultimate sentence of this piece, this government’s (ie the Ukrainian government’s) cause is not just:
https://labourheartlands.com/jacques-baud-the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine-update/#The_Military_Situation_In_The_Ukraine
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct.
‘Well, first of all, I’m amazed that we don’t have military censorship in Ukraine after the beginning of this war. And we didn’t have censorship from August 1991, when Ukraine became independent. So, I mean, the freedom of press is still there. There are limits on the information about what is happening on the front lines, but everybody understands this. So, I mean, we are still remaining free, democratic country with freedom of press, even during this invasion.’
Andriy Kurkov, Ukrainian Author 16 May 22
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct
‘Parents have even travelled to bases and hospitals directly for information about missing children, only to be rebuffed. The father of a conscript who disappeared aboard the sunken Moskva cruiser, for instance, went to the naval base in the Black Sea to ask where his son was. The local commander replied with a shrug: “Well, somewhere at sea.”
‘The country still has conscripts, but if the invasion’s popularity sags as the war drags on, Russian families may return to the old ways of keeping their sons away from the draft, such as through bribes or by hiding them domestically or abroad. The military may then have no choice but to change its personnel culture, but it will be too late to achieve its larger aims in Ukraine.’
RAND 18 May 22
If there have really been over 20,000 Russian soldiers killed in the conflict (and with Russia’s demographics) they might. As for its larger aims, I understand the main ones are protecting the Donbass “republics” and securing Mariupol. Both look achievable.
‘…larger aims’
These are a moveable feast, it seems.
‘(Retired Russian Colonel) Khodaryonok says: “The situation from the overall strategic position is that the Ukrainian armed forces are able to arm a million people.
“They’re saying it themselves, that ‘for us, there’s no difficulty in mobilising a million people’.
“The whole issue is to what extent they’re able to supply this army of modern weapons and military hardware.”
He says if Ukraine had no help, it would struggle to do that, but with foreign help they will be equipped in the “near future”, massively expanding Kyiv’s forces.
Mr Khodaryonok goes on to say the situation will “frankly, get worse”.
ROSSIYA 1
That is why today’s news of successful Ukrainian Reservist attacks on Russian supply lines is key. The reservists are locals who know their way around their locality far better than the Russians do.
The Russians have lost the hearts and minds of so many Ukrainian Russians.
Never a good idea.
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct.
Two more Russian soldiers are expected to appear in court accused of war crimes.
The two soldiers, who have not been named, are a GRAD gun layer and a driver.
They are accused of firing from Russia into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, destroying educational and residential buildings.
They were later caught in Ukraine by the Ukrainian military.
Today’s appearances are initial hearings and they will begin at 9am UK time today in the Kotelevskii district court in Poltava.
‘We’re not dealing with celebrity gossip here. Western audiences have a right to be accurately informed about this war.’
Correct.
Ukrainian forces have blown up an armoured train carrying Russian troops using an explosive device in the occupied southern city of Melitopol, the Ukrainian territorial defence force said today.
The Ukrainian territorial defence, the reservist branch of the armed forces, said an explosive device detonated directly under a carriage carrying servicemen.
Melitopol? Isn’t that on a key supply route…….
The best way to understand the motivating forces in the current Ukrainian conflict is simply to remember everything you were taught about the Cold War, and apply it exactly the same in every way. Except the USSR is now the West and the West is a corrupt, broken, bankrupt communist hellscape with no rights or freedoms.
Now you’re all set.
“Westerners” means increasingly little as mass immigration continues at an expeditious rate. Either way, they are hostages to a vile cabal and have been since the 1960s and as a consequence they have no rights. They think they have, but they are wrong. As we have seen in the last two years, they have no right to free speech, no right to protest and no right to assembly. They certainly do not have a right to truthful news.
Ah, Russia, population 144 million, an economy the size of Spain. What a bunch of no-hopers. Exhibit A – invasion of the Ukraine..
Just for those guffawing at the absurd idea that those cuddly Ukrainian notNazisatall would ever kill any of “their own people”, here they are actually boasting about it (again):
Russians With Attitude
@RWApodcast
Former commander of Azov Maksim Zhorin, now one of the leaders of their political wing (the ‘National Corps’ party), boasts on his Telegram channel about the murders of people accused of being ‘pro-Russian’ in Severodonetsk. Warning: extremely graphic photos
Quote Tweet
Леонид Геннадьевич
@leonelk855
· 7h
Ukrainian Nazi Maxim Zhorin (ex-Azov, headquarters of the ‘National Corps Party’ now) flaunts brutality, showing the mutilated bodies of ‘pro-Russian activists’ from Severodonetsk
#UkrainianNazis #UkrainianWarCrimes
#Severodonetsk
https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1527034276755169283
[Warning: the warning in RWA’s post about “extremely graphic photos” is not kidding!]
Those noble Ukrainians representing “western values”, eh?
And from the appalling to the just plain shameful:
Russians With Attitude
@RWApodcast
they’re *bragging* about going after old ladies accused of ‘collaboration’ (i.e. taking food offered by russian soldiers, or, even more likely, having a prettier granddaughter than her neighbor)
Quote Tweet
Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
· May 17
After retaking a village that has been under Russian occupation, Ukrainian special forces arrest a woman accused of having collaborated with the Russians.
She probably thought Ukraine would never return.
Collaborating is dangerous. Always was.
https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1527044294166683650
The Ukrainians chose to make this a war of hatred rather than just a war to resolve a dispute. It’s mostly Ukrainians who have suffered and will suffer more for their rulers’ decisions and actions.
The same values Julian Assange exposed for example
Wonder what’s happpened to all the so-called Factchecker wankers?
Oh they’re here. Spend a bit of time here and you’ll come to recognise the usual suspects.
Gosh, what a terrible man.
Perhaps we could borrow him after he’s done in Ukraine. 🤣
“Gosh, what a terrible man.”
Shocking.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin called the movement for transgender acceptance “a crime against humanity” in a Thursday speech.
Putin, speaking at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, the city that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics, said that to have children “taught that a boy can become a girl and vice versa” is “on the verge of a crime against humanity,” The Washington Post reports. He claimed supporters of transgender rights are pushing for an end to “basic things such as mother, father, family or gender differences.””
Putin Calls Trans Acceptance ‘Crime Against Humanity’
‘There will be dad and mum’: Putin rules out Russia legalizing gay marriage
I think we might be getting to the bottom, as it were, of why many US sphere pundits and apparatchiks loathe him so much.
After all:
“With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights. So let’s resume our series of tweets to mark #LGBTHM2022” – the head of our secret service, God preserve us!
https://twitter.com/JamesfWells/status/1497866232644706306
“Perhaps we could borrow him”
Who is ‘we’?
“after he’s done in Ukraine. 🤣”
Do you mean after Russian mass murder and destruction in that country has come to an end? (and I am referring to the military activity itself rather than pointing judgemental fingers at Mr Putin or anyone else – I don’t believe in personalising issues)
If so I am not sure what is funny about that.
Incidentally I agree with the Russian President that those who believe in the primitive and brutal system known as Sharia Law should remain in or go to regions where it is currently in operation rather than try and impose it elsewhere (including in Russia).
That is really a by-the-by to the fundamental point that Sharia should be continuously opposed on moral grounds and ultimately overcome / abandoned – primarily for the sake of those currently living under its oppressive auspices (especially eg females who are treated as second class citizens)
Where Mr Putin goes wrong in this statement is in the implicitly racist and xenophobic connotations of ‘Russia does not need minorities: minorities need Russia’
All human beings are exactly equal, all racial, nationalistic and institutionalised religious divisions entirely artificial, and… Read more »
“we should live together in tolerance and peace.”
Good luck with that one. I’m sure it’ll help you in your quest to “ultimately overcome” Sharia Law.
“the implicitly racist and xenophobic connotations of ‘Russia does not need minorities: minorities need Russia’”
The horror!
Have you volunteered to help the Azovs resist the “mass murder and destruction” you decry? I hear they need some new recruits, having had a lot of them denazified recently, and I’m sure your creed of “All human beings are exactly equal, all racial, nationalistic and institutionalised religious divisions entirely artificial, and we should live together in tolerance and peace” will gain you a special place in their hearts.
“All human beings are exactly equal, all racial, nationalistic and institutionalised religious divisions entirely artificial”
So how come people of West African descent dominate sprinting events?
All humans are exactly equal, but some humans are more equal than others.
All racial divisions are entirely artificial but some are less artificial than others.
“All humans are exactly equal, but some humans are more equal than others.
All racial divisions are entirely artificial but some are less artificial than others.”
I am surprised that anyone would openly espouse the sort of self-evidently contradictory propagandist slogans put forward by George Orwell in Animal Farm as satirical warnings.
You said earlier that skin colour differentiates between those who can exist longer in the sun and those who can’t.
So on yet another level it’s self evident that humans are not equal in terms of ability or qualities.
We are different, and can have different skills or attributes, but we are not equal.
How do you deal with the inequality of territorial instincts and the use of money? We both do the same job for the same money, but I drink my earnings away whilst you save ad buy a nice house.
Is your territorial desire to keep your house to yourself wrong? Should you then pay for my house because I’m now perceived as less equal than you because you have a nice house, car and holidays every year?
Just where does equality begin and end, and who enforces it? The state, as in communist China, where government officials are clearly more equal than the common man?
By all means, treat others with respect but expecting equality from humans is just juvenile.
I am talking about fundamental equality purely in the sense of ruling out sectarian (or indeed personal) antagonisms, lack of respect, hatred and ultimately violence.
Individual uniqueness, free-will and creativity entirely co-exist with the above.
We are both separated individuals and part of a greater (ie universal and spiritual) whole.
All forms of sectarianism, including both nationalism and the Marxism you correctly identify as a harmful and baseless theory, are distractions from this simple truth.
I am afraid you are mixing up relatively trivial localised and to some extent heritable environmental adaptations (eg darker skin pigmentation to cope with greater sunlight and longer limbs to help with heat dissipation) with the pseudo-scientific, generalised, heirarchical and sectarian concept of ‘race’.
Again, all outward and biological differences are entirely superficial and we are all fundamentally (ie spiritually) the same.
And should treat each other as such.
An ideologue. I was like you once, when Marxism was explained to me. I was around 14 at the time, and the concept lasted for around five minutes.
If equality is so good, how come communism doesn’t work?
That’s hardly a “superficial” concept. You can be any height, weight, sex, sexual preference, colour or religion, and equal in every respect including work and earnings ethics, shared out equally amongst all, yet it’s still a miserable existence.
Wishing for a utopian existence is the dream of all on the left. It’s childish as human nature does not evolve like that. We are territorial creatures (you wouldn’t want me waltzing into your house would you, but that’s equality) and it comes with a lot of other baggage like not wanting to be instructed what to do to ensure we are all equal.
Men are different to women, so from the get go equality breaks down.
Do you mean after Russian mass murder and destruction in that country has come to an end?
Enlighten us all with the evidence of mass murder. Scroll down. You’ll find a post of mine with a photograph of the “mass murder” Russians were supposed to have carried out, before putting the corpses in body bags and littering the street with them.
Nice of them to put them in body bags don’t you think? Mass murders don’t usually do that though, do they.
You’ll also find evidence that Russia didn’t start the shooting, Ukrainians did, firing 5,000 artillery rounds into Donbas for 7 days before Russia intervened. Artillery is only ever used as a prelude to a mobilised attack, so what’s your assessment about what was to happen to Donbas?
There is another possibility though. The artillery bombardment was designed to provoke Russia into crossing the Russia/Ukraine border to intervene in what would likely be yet another ethnic cleansing event like Bosnia or Rwanda which the west failed to act on, despite all prior warnings. Instead, the Ukrainian artillery was withdrawn as soon as the job of provocation was accomplished.
Perhaps Mr. Putin wasn’t happy to witness ethnic Russians in Donbass… Read more »
‘It’s hardly racist or xenophobic to expect a guest in your house to conform to your rules.’
It is precisely racist, xenophobic or both to view people as on the one hand residents and the other guests in ‘your house’ (here metaphorically meaning one of these artificial constructs known as nation-states).
‘What right do you have to instruct devout Muslims to treat their women as equals?’
Islam, like all institutionalised religions, is a manufactured sectarian construct, and I have not only a right but duty to challenge any areas where it contravenes the eternal moral law of compassion and egalitarianism.
Challenging or disagreeing is not, of course
not the same as attempting to instruct (a coercive concept).