Sonja Van den Ende Residents of Mariupol receiving humanitarian aid from the Russian army in collaboration with the DPR army. [Source: Photo courtesy of Sonja van den Ende]
Where shall I begin?
Can a man endure so much suffering? Can you write about so much suffering without getting emotional?
Probably not.
Mariupol has been wiped out, buildings have collapsed mostly due to rocket attacks and, of course, there have been bombings as well.
This is a war of destruction that I have seen before—in Syria, in Homs. Perhaps also like in Dresden, toward the end of WWII, although, of course, Dresden I cannot verify.
For years the media ignored the Ukrainian army assaults on the people of Eastern Ukraine, who were forced to survive in underground bunkers.
They act as if the war started in February, when it actually started in 2014 as a war by the Ukrainian government against its own people.
Eight years of destroyed villages and towns—why? Because eastern Ukraine is inhabited by a predominantly Russian-speaking population, who grew up in the Soviet system.
After the 2014 Maidan coup backed by the U.S., they were supposed to become part of the EU and the pro-European “puppet” government in Kyiv. All their values, norms, culture and language had to be thrown overboard.
In order to achieve these ends, first President Petro Poroshenko and then Zelensky, have carried out “special operations” which they called “fighting terrorists.”
These battalions are indeed neo-Nazis, from father to son they are indoctrinated with the Nazi ideology of the Stepan Bandera cult.
This is exactly the same script that happened in Syria, where jihadists even cut out the hearts of the Syrian Army soldiers and hung their chopped heads on poles.
The “bombed” city theater
On March 16, 2022, the Donetsk Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, was allegedly bombed. It was reportedly used as an air raid shelter during the siege of Mariupol, allegedly holding 1,300 civilians in the days before March 16, and at least 300 victims might have been killed.
According to Western media, the theater was bombed by the Russian forces. According to the Russian spokesman and many eyewitness accounts, who lived near the theater, they did not hear any bombardment in their neighborhood or the theater.