Demining Ukraine will be the biggest challenge for sappers since World War II. This statement was made by the representative of the US State Department, European Affairs Manager Michael Tirre, emphasizing that Russian soldiers purposefully mine civilian houses, including children’s toys, and even the bodies of those killed.
The awful use of explosive devices by the Russian military is reminiscent of ISIS tactics in Iraq and Syria, where the terrorists tried to kill as many civilians as possible so that people would be afraid to return to their homes. Of course, demining is the long process that can take years. According to experts, about 30 % of the territory of Ukraine is mined. It takes 7 to 10 years to neutralize explosive items. This means that explosive devices will continue to block access to fertile farmland, prevent the restoration of life and the return of Ukrainians to their territory, to their homes.
What the Russian invaders are doing now is similar to the ISIS’s methods, so the parallels between Putin’s tactics and ISIS are obvious. After all, the methods of warfare, total lies and propaganda are present in both cases. Similar are the ways of warfare. There is nothing new. It is worth to recall that Russia and its local agents used the ISIS’s tactics in Crimea and Donbas, in 2014. Fake civilian organizations, kidnappings and murders, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, psychological warfare, and the infiltration of agents in the governing bodies were among the tools of both the Russian Federation and ISIS. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the style of Putin and ISIS’s warfare has become even more similar. Displaying extreme brutality on social media, shooting POWs, executing civilians, rape, and other forms of sexual violence are war crimes that involve aggressors on both sides. Thus, ISIS used them as a tool of psychological warfare to dominate or destroy certain communities, especially in northern Iraq. In Ukraine, this method of the Russian Federation also became notorious for everyone, especially after the de-occupation of the previously occupied territories.
This is not the only example of the common brutality of the Russian Federation and ISIS, which at one time used improvised explosive devices that have become a distinctive feature of the ISIS warfare. The Russians do the same. Earlier there were confirmations that in 2014-2015 the Russian Federation and the separatist forces led by it used such explosive devices more than 600 times, and since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, their use has become massive.
There is more and more confirmation that the Russian Federation is a terrorist country every day. Only together it is possible to stop terror and war in the center of Europe, because the West understands that the battle for Ukraine is a new era in history. If allies can successfully help repel Russian aggression, the global forces that support democracy and the rule of law will be strengthened. Therefore, right now is the time when the West should provide Ukraine with all possible assistance: weapons, military training, money and strong moral support. This is a necessary set for the victory of democracy over the terror and evil of the Putin’s regime.