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Mostly Murder: the 5,600 Russian War Crime Caseload of Ukrainian Investigators

Invasion Day +46 Five thousand, six hundred separate war crimes are now being actively investigated in Ukraine, mostly murder, with almost all of the cases with Russian military suspects. A rabble devoid of humanity, defeated in battle, demoralised, deserted by their leaders but still very dangerous in their despair.


The First Battle of Kyiv has seen Russia defeated (there are no winners) but the 'Great Battle of the East' has now begun. With the usual Putin Dark Age tactics of bombardment and siege and brutality and inhumanity. Then the land battle will launch and even its its opening phases Putin appears not to have learnt by previous errors, a long convoy again being attacked with heavy casualties on the road, more misery, more demoralisation. No wonder the Russian Army doesn't want to fight.


Today we list two writers for Hogswards nominated by the team,





Hogswards: Andrey Kurkov and Yevgenia Belorusets


Andrey Kurkov


(Image courtesy of Wikipedia and used under common access agreements)


Andrey Kurkov is a famous Ukrainian author of nineteen novels, including the bestselling 'Death and the Penquin'. He has also written nine books for children, and over twenty documentary, fiction and TV scripts. His work is currently translated into thirty-seven languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, Persian and Hebrew, and published in sixty-five countries Kurkov, who has long been a respected commentator on Ukraine for the international media, notably in Europe and the United States, has written assorted articles for various publications worldwide.


In 2018 he was elected as President of PEN Ukraine.

When asked why he thought Putin invaded he said,

'I think it’s because he got older very fast in the last years, and he spent two years in isolation, double isolation… the political isolation from the civilised world and the pandemic isolation. So I think he just got mad and he understands that he doesn’t have much time left... The biggest drama of his life is the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he wants to be remembered in Russia as somebody who restored the might of the great Russian empire.'

(With thanks to Patrick Freyne, Irish Times, and used with due acknowledgement)




Hogswards: Yevgenia Belorusets


Yevgenia is a photojournalist and writer based in Kyiv. She has been documenting the war with Russia since 2014. She is the author of Modern Animal (ISOLARII, 2021) and the forthcoming Lucky Breaks (New Directions, 2022). She is currently exhibiting in Venice but will return to Kyiv shortly. Publisher ISOLARII has rereleased her book 'Modern Animal' with 100 percent of the profits being donated to Ukrainian charities and causes. She is currently also writing a daily blog on the war on her own website.


Yevgenia Belorusets



(Photograph courtesy of the IWM and used under common access agreements.)


Two of her diary entries are reproduced here with grateful thanks,


'The word “war” is even less comprehensible during wartime than in peacetime, when it’s used quite differently. What is happening around me right now—the constant shelling and the warnings I hear—this is what “war” should mean. But this word seems meaningless, because in war reality breaks into parts, islands, pieces.'


I When I began this diary, I didn’t plan to pursue it for too long because I assumed the war would last only a few days. “It’s really impossible,” I thought, “that such a war won’t come to an end at once. It’s not doing anyone any good! The casualties are much greater than people think.” The losses for Ukraine, Russia, and the entire world were already enormous on the very first day; every additional hour felt unreasonable and unnecessary.'


(Courtesy of ArtForum)


We acknowledge and salute both these writers and all writers fighting this war for peace with their pens and the minds.


Hoggy.



Todays Letters:


From Hoggy to everyone.


Dear readers,


A Response to Dr Landau's Letter on Facing 'Putin the Machiavellian'

A Call to a Personal Audit


Today we respond to Dr Landau's letter of the 31st March suggesting the ways we might face up to Putin's evil.


It is a personal audit which we feel everyone might like to consider doing for themselves but the team at Hoggy support the idea and this is what we are doing to try and adopt the points outlined in Dr Landau's suggestions.


  1. Engage in self care. It is easy to become demoralised by the constant exposure to atrocity, we need to be supported. We have become physical letter writers with a circle of friends. We listen to advice and suggestions, We feel greatly at one with our writers A joy.

2. Accept our limitations. We can only do so much. We have identified a group of

Ukrainian students and their families and doing all we can to support them rather than

trying to support all those in such need. We have launched 'Hoggy's Fund' to raise

money to support the needs of Ukrainian writers, artists and musicians.


3. Engage in self compassion. There are many emotions being expressed by the team

but high amongst them is anger, followed by frustration. There will not really help Ukraine so we are engaging is much of normality as we can. Today a trip to the beach.


4. Rely on trusted colleagues. This is the main reason we will not publish our efforts on

social media: we believe that a small effort, replicated amongst friends all over the

world will avoid the malice of the trolls and the infiltrators of the mass outlets. We are relying on you, our readers, correspondents and supporters to spread the message of peace.


5. Engage in a mastery mindset, believing nothing Putin says. We do not believe anything Putin says. And will never again do so. A liar. A Machiavelli. We only believe in peace through freedom, justice and truth.


6. Focus on Putin's actions and highlight them to the world. This is the reason we are so bellicose in our focus on Putin in the blog: it is his war, his evil, and his downfall. The blog is our way of seeking to highlight this to the world.


7. Focus on specific positive actions. Such as Hoggy style interventions. (Dr Landau's words.) 'Hoggy's Fund', supporting the booklet, 'Sunflowers for Ukraine', our letter writing campaign, creating alliances, publishing our correspondents, speaking with Ukrainians, offering hope. Sending cash donations. We will continually look for even more specific positive actions and encourage our readers to share their own here.


8. Do not try to outplay Putin. We are being careful to only accuse him of verifiable actions. These do not need to be proven at this stage. We allege, we accuse, we denounce, we highlight, we opine. We do not threaten, we not falsely state, we do

not abandon our core values or engage in falsehoods. We seek to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.


9. Combat Putin by being authentic and speaking the truth at all times. As spoken: The truth will win out eventually if enough people speak it loudly enough. Join us. Please.


10. Do not try to beat Putin directly, you will not win: We know this, but we will continue to strive to do well and reach all our own goals or objectives as laid out below. We will remain firm in the pursuit of truth, freedom and justice and these will win out in the

end. We will continue to publish the blog each day at some practical human cost with all of our brilliant correspondents, until we feel peace has come and we are no longer needed. Each post takes us between two and four hours a day, involving very early starts in a busy office, so please do support us wherever you can. It is a big ask but we feel it is well worth the effort. We do not carry ads, we not seek sponsorship, we are not paid, we just ask for as much support in letters as we can find.

Hoggy's Core Values and Principles


We will:


+ Strive to encourage incisive writing for peace by our correspondents wherever we can.


+ Strive to pursue peace through freedom, truth and justice by whatever means possible.


+ Remain in solidarity with our correspondents for peace in Ukraine, in the UK, and around the world, supporting their compatible aims and sharing our belief in freedom, truth and justice wherever we can.


+ Seek to align with supportive networks of like minded people working for peace.



We encourage everyone, correspondents, readers, and supporters to join with us in adopting the ten points of Dr Landau's letter and even sharing them with us whenever you feel you can.


You are all making a magnificent stand for Ukraine and for peace. We salute you all.


And we look forward to hearing from you all again soon.


With love wherever it can be found,


Hoggy



Please keep writing, supporting and believing in the world. In the words of Desiderata, 'with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams it is still a wonderful place.' And yes, we need to strive to be happy. Thank you all. Hoggy.



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