Changes
/* NATO war in Ukraine */
{{quotebox-float|"They omit or deny that there is a civil war in Donbas even though the majority of scholars who [have] published or presented concerning this conflict in Western academic venues classify it as a civil war with Russian military intervention. The Western media also omitted that recent ‘unity marches’ in Kharkiv and Kyiv and a staged training of civilians, including a grandmother, were organized and led by the far right, in particular, the [[Azov Battalion|Neo-Nazi Azov [Battalion].]]”<ref>https://twitter.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1490034084600594436</ref>}}
On March 27, 2022, very disturbing videos emerged of mistreatment of Russian POWs by Armed Forces of Ukraine. One video shows Russian soldiers with canvas bags over their heads and then beaten in the face with rifle butts. The prisoners are shot in the kneecaps and genitals, and they are left on the ground to bleed to death. Several vans then arrive at the Ukraine military compound in Kharkiv, and as each POW is removed from the van they are shot in the knees. A second video shows Russian POW's lying face down in a paved courtyard, or compound, and then being shot in the knees from the rear.<ref>https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/27/zelenskyy-worried-about-western-financial-support-after-video-surfaces-showing-ukraine-military-torturing-russian-pows/</ref>
On February 28, 2022, Maria Avdeeva, a [[misinformation]] specialist and director at the European Expert Association, shared a tweet that appeared to show Russians indiscriminately shelling residential areas.<ref> https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1498544825062375434</ref> However, the building targeted in the video is a known base for the [[Azov Battalion]]. Hromadske previously reported that the group "occupied the building of the regional administration and acted as a local 'Self-Defense' known as 'Sect 82'. In 2014, on the basis of the 'Sect,' a 'Schidna Corps' was formed—a volunteer formation that was incorporated into the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was supposed to protect [[Kharkiv]] in the event of a war on its territory. [[Kyiv regime]] Interior Minister [[Arsen Avakov]] called the corps 'his black hundred in Kharkiv.'"<ref>https://hromadske.ua/posts/my-namahaiemosia-pryity-do-vlady-cherez-vybory-khocha-maiemo-vsiaki-mozhlyvosti-iak-azov-staie-partiieiu</ref>
After the NATO-led assault on the Kharkov and Izium front in September 2022,<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/us/politics/ukraine-military-intelligence.html</ref> numerous assassinations, sabotage, nuclear blackmail, terrorism plots and continued shelling of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics killing dozens of civilians - including children with U.S.-built HIMAR missile launcher systems,<ref>https://southfront.org/us-himars-mlrs-killing-civilians-in-donetsk-and-luhansk-peoples-republics-videos-18/</ref> the Russian State Duma began debating an upgrade of the Special Military Operation to a counterterrorism operation.<ref>https://news.rambler.ru/sociology/49327852-ekspert-vlasti-gotovyat-izmenenie-statusa-spetsoperatsii-na-ukraine/</ref> Between the Kharkov and Kherson counteroffensives, 12,000 Ukrainian and NATO forces were killed. Russian casualties were fewer than 400. Ukraine threw all its strategic reserves into the fight. Due to the magnitude of losses and the approaching seasonal change, Gen. Valerei Zaluzhnyi was reported to have advised Zelensky to cease the counteroffensive and revert to a defensive posture.
