How should we treat videos of Ukrainian soldiers being executed? Serious conversation about whether Russians have any remnants of humanity

"It hurts!" an as-yet-unknown Ukrainian hero shouts. And that's it. Russians, acting like medieval barbarians, showing the bloodied head to the camera.

I saw that video. With no retouching. Without any photoshop. I left the "woman" in the background and turned on the most unemotional "journalist". And yes, I was quite ready for the non-humans to fulfill their promise: "how many more videos like this will pop up". This is a clear attempt to knock the ground out from under the feet of those who are morally exhausted from this bloody marathon. The clear goal of the video is to spoil at least some light optimism on the eve of the Easter holiday. They want you to carefully take the cake out of the oven keeping the head in your mind.

Can I say that the Russian soldiers did something new? No. For the past 30 years, they have been playing football with the heads in Abkhazia and have been happy to decorate a palisade with the scalps of murdered Chechen girls. This is what happens when millions of people are untouched by the evolution and ideas of humanism and enlightenment that have worked their way through Europe. And once and for all, they made it clear that the days when you can behave like a scumbag are over.

But as for Ukraine, the issue is deeper. All of this is the result of years of work to dehumanize Ukrainians in the eyes of Russia. Here you have "and you will be held accountable for Sevastopol". And caricatured images of Ukrainians in numerous products of Russian mass pop culture. Admiral, We Are From the Future 2, The White Guard, and even the Russian movie Taras Bulba portray Ukrainians as traitors, schmucks, and complete zeroes. The humiliation of Ukrainians in this fierce Ukrainophobia was so powerful that it equated us with lice or cockroaches. This means that every generation of Russians thought: "so killing and robbing a Ukrainian is a holy thing."

And this is how the bloody genocide in Baturyn later resulted in a bloody massacre and artillery shelling of Kyiv in the winter of 1918. This was followed by the massacre of the Kholodnyi Yar residents, also with severed heads on spears. A little later, Ukrainian intellectuals were shot in ravines throughout the USSR. And then comrade Stalin reveled in the fact that he had solved the issue of possible Ukrainian peasant uprisings once and for all. Just organize the Holodomor and destroy the protest potential of the enslaved nation. What have we always been for the Russians? Banderites, Mazepa’s and Petliura’s people. All of them, according to the Russians, can be killed, executed, and raped. And then move the brood to a seized apartment.

As soon as comparisons were made in the West that the Russians had equaled themselves with ISIL by these demonstrative executions, good Russians with Khodorkovsky's face started a separation campaign. No, it was not the Russians or even the Russian Army. It was the Wagner army, not a peace-loving and highly cultured people.

However, this is more like an attempt to save their pants. Because with a severed head and blood up to their ears, this is the real essence of Russians. The genetic code of the butcher. Everyone is looking for an explanation for these actions - to intimidate, to sow panic, but this is all secondary. They enjoy torturing. They enjoy their complete power over the victim and feel like omnipotent gods, because they are sure that the punishment will not reach them. This is what Raskolnikov's mantra really looks like: "Am I a trembling creature or do I have a right?"

Is it worth watching the videos of executions that have already been published and those that will be published? Yes, if you have the strength.

The red pill frees you from illusions, shocks you, but gives you the strength to fight. For too long we have been choosing the blue one. I remember how sluggishly the masses reacted to the first mass execution of Volodymyr Rybak, Yura Dyakovsky, and Yuriy Popravka by Girkin's gang. They were burned with fire, stabbed with knives, and beaten until they lost consciousness. While they were still alive, their stomachs were ripped open, sand was filled in and they were drowned unconscious in the river. In April 2014, not everyone wanted to see these terrifying photos - it just seemed too far away, that it was a showdown between Donetsk residents. And if you're a brave non-political cowboy from cozy Kyiv, it doesn't concern you.

Executions, castrations, rapes - all of this was from the first bells of the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas. But at that time it was not customary to talk about it, because all political parties and the lion's share of the Ukrainian people were busy stitching the country back together, and in fact missed the moment when Russia jumped out of the coffin like Dracula in search of a hearty dinner. 

I wish the unknown tortured hero for his name to be found. To receive a proper burial. And most importantly, not to receive indifference or oblivion. This is at the minimum.

Next, I would like to see smart decisions from Ukraine's military and political leadership. And not slogans about "we will take revenge and will not forget". The videos of the two executions were from the Bakhmut-Soledar area last spring. And I would like to hear what is being done to ensure that Ukrainian infantry soldiers are not captured 1-2 at a time without quality communications and drones, where a demonstrative execution awaits them.

InformNapalm analysts gave a very sober explanation of why the video of the executions was released on the Internet right now. I quote: "Judging by the militants' equipment, voice commands behind the scenes, and the similarity of these actions to torture and murder in Syria, it is likely that this is one of the Wagner PMC mercenary units, the one who is shooting the video on the phone - some kind of commander or fighter, who ordered another militant (perhaps a newcomer recently recruited into the group) to commit a murder in order to test his obedience and readiness to fulfill any order and at the same time to film compromising material and link him with the group of these militants by blood. In Syria, the Wagner soldiers also cut off limbs and heads, and the video was posted online because it was found on the phones of the killed militants."

According to the researchers, after such videos are filmed, commanders explain to the "newly converted" war criminals what awaits them if they decide to surrender or escape. In other words, the video is used as compromising evidence, which they threaten to leak to the enemy if they fail. 

So how should we react to videos of executions and torture, which will be numerous? 

First of all, such videos are a reason for cold pragmatic hatred. If you see this, immediately donate money for drones.

The video of torture of Ukrainian heroes is a reason to cut all ties with the 'Russian world' here and now: the occupier's language, love of Russian literature, and the search for good Russians like jam in shit. Russians do not spare anyone. The guy in the video shouted one last time in Russian: "Больно!" ("It hurts!" - ed). However, this did not lead to dialogues, compromises, or smoking one cigarette for two.

And never, never forget that the same thing that was on all the videos of torture and execution - the enemies planned to do it to the most active and brightest. This is what genocide looks like from those who climbed with their brotherhood like ivy on a poplar tree. 

Don't forget to tell your children that borders and political asylum do not save you from the Russians. They must be destroyed. And first of all, we have to clear ourselves of sentiments for the Russian inside of us.

*The inscription on the title photo: "I bring peace".

About the author: Maryna Danyliuk-Yarmolaieva, journalist, political analyst.