News - Middle East: It comes into the category of ‘stating the obvious’ that all sides commit atrocities in war - especially in the course of modern conflicts fought out in urban centers in and around civilians. Indeed war itself is an atrocity, reflective as it is of a complete breakdown in human affairs whenever and wherever it erupts. This is why it is incredibly incumbent on those in positions of power to do everything possible and exert every sinew to avert war through the judicious use of diplomacy.

For this reason historians worth their salt will look back on the failure to avert the conflict in Ukraine and level an unambiguous j’accuse at the door of Washington, Brussels, London and Kiev. Why do I say this? Well, using Kiev as a cat’s paw, it is from the first three of these capitals that the provocation of Russia has emanated with the expansion of NATO up to Moscow’s western border over recent decades.
However, this aspect of the conflict in Ukraine has been covered extensively elsewhere. The purpose of this article is to mine the competing narratives over the brutality that has been meted out to POWs and civilians as the conflict continues to unfold with no end in sight at this writing.

The accusation that war crimes have and are being systematically committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians has so colonized Western media coverage of the conflict in recent weeks, you might actually believe that the Ukrainians are fighting their side of the conflict with bows and arrows rather than the vast array of NATO supplied weaponry that has been flowing into the country since hostilities began.