CNN's Alex Marquardt speaks with Anna, a Russian woman living in the US whose Russian cousin died fighting in the war in Ukraine. Anna discusses the difficulties of speaking about his death with her family. #CNN #News
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C’mon…since when has “following orders” suddenly become ok? The Nuremberg trials did not allow that as an excuse! So we should be so much more lenient now?
Yes following illegal orders is not acceptable, but they are following the legal convention of war, as long as they wear the uniform of the Russian Army, do not follow orders of targeting civilians and treat POWs ok they are fine.
I know it’s wierd but invading another country is perfectly fine.
@wavavoom Invading another country is actually not “perfectly fine”. That is why Russia is now facing over 7000 individual sanctions. I do know what you mean though, invasion by itself is not a war crime, only the crimes done during the invasion are.
@wavavoom Russia did not declare war on Ukraine, so I believe that all are mercenaries… Are in the wrong place..and commit crimes.. There are Russian soldiers who deserted, surrendered , some killed their commander driving over him with the tank. They recognise the illegitimacy of this war. Seek the story of the sole survivor of the 331 paratrooper brigade from Russia..
Even an order has to be filtered as you end up scapegoat…while officers are not on the battlefield. I do not think that any normal person can go and kill someone only because were told they are bad, nazzis etc ..is not like Ukraine invaded Russia
yeah it’s hard to go with the “they’re just following orders” line when they massacring civilians. how well did that defense work for the nazis when they went on trial?
Actually pretty well, believe it or not. Tons of lower level nazis got off the hook, but people have forgotten this
Ukraine is piling up the bodies of Russian soldiers, but are having trouble sending the bodies home, as the Russian leadership doesn’t want the populace to know the numbers of losses, nor do they want to have to pay the death benefits to the soldiers families. Ukraine is treating the bodies with respect, while the Russians are leaving the bodies of Ukrainians lying in the streets…
.Ukraina nakaplivayet tela rossiyskikh soldat, no ispytyvayet problemy s otpravkoy tel domoy, tak kak rossiyskoye rukovodstvo ne khochet, chtoby naseleniye znalo tsifry poter’, a takzhe ne khochet vyplachivat’ soldatam posobiye v svyazi so smert’yu. sem’i. Ukraina s uvazheniyem otnositsya k telam, a russkiye ostavlyayut trupy ukraintsev lezhat’ na ulitsakh…(Hope this onlne translation is accurate.)
The severely wounded Russians probably won’t get the after care they so desperately need (Physiotherapy, counseling, dental work…ect)
@Charlie Foster That, I believe, is true, as there are few social safety networks in Russia, especially away from the big cities.
@ToonShader It”s the transliterated form, many translators will produce it as output, but (and this I know is true for Google) will not accept it as input. The reason why transliterations are produced is because it conforms closely to the phoenetic pronounciation of the words in the original language.
@Mark Symns No, more than likely what they did was input the Russian text into a translator app, then copy pasted the English output, then additionally, and needlessly copy/pasted the transliterated output as well. The transliterated form is useful only for phonetically reproducing the sounds of the words in the original text, but useless for posting here.
Here’s a fun one for you: In a village in the Sumy region some weeks ago, untended dogs were observed eating the remains of dead Russian soldiers. Tastes like . . . . chicken!!!
It is tragic when any life is taken, particularly someone young with their whole life ahead of them. However, I cannot feel sympathy for this young man. The Russians should not be there, causing misery to so many millions of innocent people. There are always options other than following orders- surrendering, for example. Yes, your life will be messed up as a result, but better that than to ruin someone else’s life.
The whole situation is a tragedy of epic proportions, caused by Russia.
I wouldnt go for sure
Killing civilians , mass destrution , womans and children dying , invading / destroying others houses
No matter what i wouldnt go , its insane , better dying then live with this type of guilt
One thing is defending your country , other is attacking
Defending we fight soldiers invading
Attacking we will find all type of people who were just living their lifes
@Lilli C: most western and democratic nations do not force their citizens into military action. They respect freedom of conscience. Even in war time, alternative service is provided for those who conscientiously object to killing others. I know many people who did volunteer work in hospitals, National parks, donating years of work building roads, bridges etc types of service and construction that benefitted the nation, rather than killing people.
Are you that naive? 😳
@Teresa Gib: Was your last comment directed to me, or someone else?
If you were speaking to me, I will share some information and resources with you. I am speaking about people who I personally know. I do know and have met thousands of people personally who are conscientious objectors (COs), because that is the historic stance of my church, hundreds of other churches we fellowship with, and most of my friends and family. This was also the position of the Apostles and the early church, at least up until the 300s and later in many places; usually up until the time when the local churches merged with state/national governments.
Have you ever heard of the Anabaptists? We began in 1525 in Europe, and we have always been non-resistant, aka conscientious objectors. We take the words of Jesus in the gospels very literally, that we should love our enemies and be peacemakers. Some of the various historic peace churches you may have heard of are the Amish, Mennonites, Brethren, Hutterites, Apostolic Christians, Bruderhof, Quakers, and there are many more.
We are a “historic peace church,” which is the term recognized by the US government. Our members, even in times of draft, have been excused from military service or assigned alternate service for the past 100+ years because of our sincere conscientious objection to killing people. This is based on the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies, to help and serve everyone who is in need, to treat them as Jesus would, not to fight or kill them.
I personally knew people in my younger years who went to prison during World War I rather than fight and kill, before this conscientious objector (CO) status was universally respected. I remember listening to their very moving experiences of abuse in prison! Members of my family and my church did alternative service during the Korean War and Vietnam rather than kill people. When men become 18–year-olds today and are generally supposed to register for the draft, the ones I know who do register send in information regarding their church membership in a Historic Peace Church, which will give them exemption. Many others do not register because there is no active draft at present, but they know that as long as they are members in good standing, are peaceful people who do not get in fights with others, who do not sue others, and who follow the words of Jesus literally, that there will be no problem with them getting a CO exemption if war were to be declared.
These are the same people who already regularly take time off work to volunteer and travel at their own expense to clean up and rebuild after tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, wars and other humanitarian disasters around the world. Some of them do medical missions, search and rescue, serve as firefighters and EMTs. Some of them right now are serving Ukrainian refugees in many countries, and preparing to be able to host refugees here in the US if possible. Several of us are learning Ukrainian so that we could be able to communicate with any refugees we might meet. So our mindset is to pray, serve and help in any way possible, rather than to fight or kill. We definitely ask ourselves, What Would Jesus Do? The answer is always some variation of, Jesus would love our brothers, sisters, neighbors, and also the needy stranger.
💙🙏🏽💙🤟🏽🌻💙🙏🏽💙🤟🏽
(For more information about Anabaptists, read here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptism
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_churches
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_objector
https://christianaidministries.org/program/conservative-anabaptist-service-program/
http://www.beachyam.org/doctrine.htm
https://www.dunkardbrethrenchurch.com/Our–Beliefs-.html)
It doesn’t matter. Russia has lost 20,000 soldiers, which means there have probably been 60,000 injured russian who are going to be returning to Russia to tell first person accounts. Even if Putin abandons the dead bodies to become fertilizer, the injured troops will have a story to tell.
@Travelin Troy yeah, but the cool thing is we get to watch these russians blow up on our phones. How great is that!
@Yaaghob Rahmani See a therapist
@Yaaghob Rahmani Harvard grad?
@Travelin Troy This is a war Russia cannot win, Ukraine can be supplied forever and a day from the West, through western Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have been hugely flexible, versatile and trained in command and control from the West’s best, allowing for autonomous decision-making on the ground in the heat of battle, meaning resources are used more wisely and strategically, which runs counter to the way Russia operates, diktats from the top and little flexibility down the chain.
This was how Israel defeated it’s enemies in 1967, despite considerable numerical disadvantage. Ukraine, like Israel in 1967, is defending it’s land, they’ll fight like merry hell whatever it takes. The West has opened it’s chequebook to make sure Ukraine gets what it needs. No matter what Russia tries to do, we already know they can’t compete with that, they just don’t have the means.
They were in the camp for more than 2 months, they knew everything except the exact date of the war.
Ruscists planned to capture the capital, they had everything for the war and the violent suppression of protests. That’s why the number of tortured and killed civilians is so horrible.
@Yaaghob Rahmani : I don’t get the connection of a stock car racer to this video?
@John David Wolf He doesn’t get the connection either. But he likes to repeat simple slogans that makes him feel like he belongs in a club.
@Jarl S It’s a very large club, and he ain’t in it. It’s called guys who can actually get a girlfriend and who don’t actually live in mom’s basement.
All these deaths are tragic, especially the children, we are all the same want a decent life for our families.
Old men start the wars that young men fight.
So sad. It’s like me trying to talk to my relatives who watch Fox.
This was not an easy topic to cover. I do appreciate though that you did this piece. I appreciate Anna’s hope, that her cousin was not committing war crimes. At the same time I do hope that every Russian soldier committing those war crimes would face death on Ukrainian soil. At the end of this there will be too many criminals walking free, having done torture, rape and murder for their own sadistic amusement. This whole war is a senseless tragedy that will leave winners.
My heartfelt condolences to Anna. In time, her brain-washed relations will suffer an enormously unsettling shock. The shock will hit them like Stalin’s hammer, the after-shock will take away their legs like Stalin’s sickle….. ‘Truth Will Out’….. God bless you Anna and may those around that you call cherished and much loved friends you help you now.
So their motivation to kill was simply money. What a sad life to live.
Saying “they are possibly committing warcrims” is not a good thing to say , we know for a fact that they are
I am personally sick of people using the excuse of being brainwashed or afraid or non political etc. This invasion is an atrocious crime. People need to take responsibility for educating themselves and standing against it.
Facts
Zombies r incapable this simple trick
“It shouldn’t have happened at all.” No truer words. Yet here we are, a tyrant and maniac in charge of an army, safe in his bunker sending young men to die.
Amen! Spineless NATO could have stopped it by telling Vladolf Putler not to set even a foot into Ukraine before this started. He only understands the language of force and would have never invaded. NATO also should have “closed the skies” once things did start.
Commend her courage for speaking about her cousin. Unfortunately the parents and his wife are not being told the truth, instead they have been fed a litany of lies by the Kremlin
I’m sorry for her loss. I’m not sorry for another russian soldier is dead.
I remember reading somewhere that in Russia, discussing the death of a loved one with anyone else is actually considered a crime, as militarily the death of anyone in military service is considered to be a state secret.
I mean, the military he signed up for was doing these same atrocities in Syria and other countries they are “peacekeeping” in. The only sympathy I have for him is his society’s limited options and he kinda just fell into the default occupation. He was still a human in full control of his own actions, though, so he is responsible for his own death.
Good for this lady calling it as it is “it’s hard to talk with them, as they are so brainwashed” more Russians should be saying this in media