Russian war crimes in Ukraine

[Bonobo]

Russian army, demoralised and too scared to fight against the brave Ukrainian soldiers, is purposefully targeting civilians instead, which is a war crime. Russians want to break Ukrainian spirit by random shelling their houses and whole civilian quarters with rockets and artillery.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_the_2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine

According to many specialists, the invasion of Ukraine, part of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014, violated the Charter of the United Nations prohibition on aggression and constitutes a crime of aggression according to international criminal law. Many indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by Russian forces have occurred during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which may constitute war crimes.

Crime of aggression
Main article: Legality of 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
The invasion of Ukraine violated the Charter of the United Nations prohibition on aggression and constitutes a crime of aggression according to international criminal law. There are significant procedural obstacles to prosecuting Russian leaders for the crime for aggression at the International Criminal Court, but the crime of aggression can be prosecuted in countries that allow universal jurisdiction over such crimes.[3][4][5]

Attacks on civilian areas

On 25 February 2022, Amnesty International stated that Russian forces had "shown a blatant disregard for civilian lives by using ballistic missiles and other explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas". In addition, Russia has falsely claimed to have only used precision-guided weapons. Three documented attacks, in Vuhledar, Kharkiv and Uman, Amnesty International stated were indiscriminate and could constitute war crimes.[1] The Uman attack occurred at 07:00 (UTC) on 24 February, killing one civilian and damaging a restaurant. The Kharkiv attack, at 08:00, landed between apartment buildings and killed one civilian.[1]

Two civilian merchant ships flying under the flags of neutral countries were shelled in the Black Sea on 25 February. Russian warships shelled the Moldovan-flagged chemical tanker MV Millennial Spirit and the Panamanian-flagged Japanese-owned cargo ship Namura Queen.[6][7]

On 1 and 2 March, the Russian artillery targeted a densely populated neighbourhood of Mariupol, shelling it for nearly 15 hours. The neighbourhood was significantly destroyed as a result, with deputy mayor Sergei Orlov reporting that "at least hundreds of people [were] dead."[8][9]

On 3 March, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement saying that it had recorded at least 1006 civilian casualties in the first week of the invasion, but that it believed that "the real figures are considerably higher."[10]

On 6 March, the World Health Organization released a statement saying that it had evidence that multiple health care centres in Ukraine had been attacked, with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying that "attacks on healthcare facilities or workers breach medical neutrality and are violations of international humanitarian law."[11]

Use of cluster munitions
The Vuhledar attack, at 10:30 (UTC) on 24 February, was the result of a 9M79 Tochka missile, the missile landed next to a hospital and killed four civilians. Amnesty International describe its analysis as "irrefutable evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law" by Russian forces.[1] Human Rights Watch (HRW) found that the Vuhledar hospital attack used an 9N123 cluster munition, a type of weapon that is prohibited by most states under the Convention on Cluster Munitions because of its immediate and long-term danger to civilians. The 9N123 contains fifty 9N24 individual submunitions, which each split into 316 bomblets. HRW based its analysis on contacts with hospital and municipal administrations and multiple photographic evidence. HRW called for Russian forces to stop making "unlawful attacks with weapons that indiscriminately kill and maim."[12] The press secretary of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov denied this information, saying that such types of ammunition are in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.[13]

On 27 February, Amnesty International stated that it had analysed evidence showing that Russian cluster munitions from a 220 mm BM-27 Uragan rocket had hit a preschool in Okhtyrka where civilians were taking shelter on 25 February, killing three, including a child. UAV film showed four hits on the roof of the preschool, three on the ground next to the school, two injured or dead civilians, and pools of blood. Amnesty International analysed 65 photos and videos of the event and interviewed local residents.[14] Bellingcat stated that remains of the 9M27K rocket were found 200 metres east of the kindergarten. Russian forces were located west of Okhtyrka. Amnesty described the rocket type as "unguided and notoriously inaccurate", and described the attack as a potential war crime that should be investigated.[14]

On 4 March, Human Rights Watch stated that "Russian forces fired cluster munitions into at least three residential areas in Kharkiv" on 28 February, killing at least three civilians.[15]

Targeting of humanitarian corridors

Photo distributed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs purportedly showing the victim of a Russian attack in Mariupol in March 2022
During the Siege of Mariupol, a number of attempts to establish a humanitarian evacuation corridor to evacuate civilians from the city have been made, but have failed due to the corridor being targeted by Russian forces. On 5 March, a five-hour ceasefire was declared, but evacuations were quickly halted after shelling continued during the declared time.[16] The next day, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that a second attempt to establish an evacuation corridor had failed.[17] On 7 March, the ICRC announced that it had found that one of the routes listed for evacuations during a ceasefire had been mined.[18] On 8 March, Human Rights Watch released a statement saying attacks on the evacuation corridor potentially indicated that "Russian forces violated their obligations under international humanitarian law,"[19] though New York Times reporters on the scene confirmed that Ukrainian forces fired mortar rounds in the direction of the Russian forces from a military position about 180 meters from the location.[20]

On March 7, during the Siege of Mariupol, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Michael Carpenter, described two incidents that occurred in Mariupol on March 5 and 6 as war crimes. He stated that on both dates, Russian forces bombed agreed-upon evacuation corridors while civilians were trying to use them.[21]

Thermobaric weapons
On 28 February, Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, stated that Russian forces used a thermobaric bomb in Okhtyrka.[22][23][24] International law does not prohibit the use of thermobaric munitions, fuel-air explosive devices, or vacuum bombs against military targets.[25][26] Their use against civilian populations may be banned by the United Nations (UN) Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).[27] Markarova claimed that the use of thermobaric weapons is in violation of the Geneva Conventions.[28][29][30] White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she had seen reports but did not have confirmation that Russia had used such weapons. "If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime," she told a press briefing.[22] The attack destroyed a Ukrainian military base, killing 70 soldiers.

Mariupol Hospital airstrike
Main article: Mariupol hospital airstrike
On 9 March, Russian forces bombed a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol.[46] The hospital was destroyed.[47] three people were killed, including a young girl.[48] British prime minister Boris Johnson described the bombing as "depraved".[49] Dmytro Kuleba called the bombing a "petrifying war crime".[50]

The city was cut off from electricity, food and water. A 6-year-old girl was reported to have died from dehydration under the ruins of her home in Mauripol on March 8.[51]

Mariupol theatre airstrike
Main article: Mariupol theatre airstrike
On 16 March, Russian Armed Forces bombed the Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol, Ukraine, which was in use as an air raid shelter; Ukrainian authorities stated it was holding up to 1,200 civilians during the siege of Mariupol.[52] The theatre was largely destroyed in the attack, which Ukrainian authorities described as a war crime.[53] Casualty figures are currently not known; people were trapped under the burning rubble of the collapsed theatre following the attack, but ongoing shelling in the area has complicated recovery efforts.[53][54]

The theatre is one of a number of Ukrainian heritage and cultural sites that have been deliberately targeted and destroyed by invading Russian forces.[54] Satellite images of the theatre taken on 14 March show the word "children" spelled out in Russian in two locations outside the theatre in an attempt to identify it to invading forces as a civilian air raid shelter containing children and not a military target.[53] Mariupol city council officials stated that the theatre was the largest single air raid shelter in the city, and at the time of the attack it contained only women and children.[54]

In response to the attack, Russia accused the Ukraine-backed Azov Battalion of carrying out the theatre bombing, without providing evidence.[53]

15 March, Pyotr Andryushchenko, an adviser to the city government, estimated that around 80 percent of the residential housing stock had been destroyed, and that the total number of civilians killed could be as high as 20,000

[Bonobo]

Shelling civilian buildings, Russians are using cluster ammo which is forbidden by the UN.

publicintegrity.org/national-security/ukraine-in-crisis/russia-attacks-cities-with-widely-condemned-cluster-munitions/

w.wsj.com/articles/russia-is-accused-of-using-cluster-rockets-in-ukraine-why-those-weapons-are-so-destructive-11646994602

www.rferl.org/a/russia-cluster-bombs-ukraine-war-crimes/31748612.html


UN Says It Has Credible Reports Of Russian Use Of Cluster Bombs In Ukraine

The UN human rights office said on March 11 that it had received "credible reports" of several cases of Russian forces using cluster bombs in Ukraine, adding that indiscriminate use of such weapons might amount to war crimes.

"Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities," UN spokesperson Liz Throssell told journalists in Geneva.

"We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes," she added.

Earlier this month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance had also seen the use of cluster bombs in Ukraine.

Cluster bombs are made up of a hollow shell that explodes in mid-air, dispersing dozens or even hundreds of smaller bomblets over a wide area.

Russia is not a party to a 2008 convention banning cluster munitions, although it is bound by international humanitarian law, particularly the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks.

[Bonobo]

Russian invaders shell and bombard hospitals

[Bonobo]

In Bucza and other towns around Kyiv Russians occupiers tortured, raped and executed hundreds of civilians, including small children, during one month occupation. Horrible savagery. Mass graves are bieng uncovered and examined by Ukrainian and foreign specialists.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucha_massacre

The Bucha massacre ([ˈbut͡ʃɐ], BOOTCH-uh) was the killing and abuse of Ukrainian civilians by Russian Armed Forces during the fight for and occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photographic and video material of the massacre emerged on 1 April 2022 after Russian forces withdrew from the city.[2][3]

According to the mayor, more than 400 bodies were found in the aftermath of the incident.[4] Photo evidence showed that corpses of civilians, lined up with their hands bound behind their backs, had been shot at point-blank range, which ostensibly gave proof that summary executions had taken place.[5] An inquiry by Radio Free Europe confirmed the use of a basement beneath a campground as a torture chamber.[6] Many bodies were found mutilated and burnt,[7] and girls as young as fourteen reported being raped by Russian soldiers.[8] Ukraine has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate what happened in Bucha as part of its ongoing investigation of the invasion in order to determine whether a series of Russian war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed.[9][10]

Russian authorities have denied responsibility and instead claimed that Ukraine faked footage of the event or staged the killings itself as a false flag operation,[11] and have described footage and photographs of dead bodies as fake news from the West and a provocation or staged performance by Ukrainian authorities.[12] These assertions have been characterized as false by several groups and media organizations.[note 1] Eye-witness accounts from residents blame the Russian Armed Forces for the killings.[19][20][21]

[Bonobo]

Russian soldiers are known for their war crimes committed throughout centuries

Interview which explains the nature of Russian war crimes

www.onet.pl/informacje/onetwiadomosci/historyk-lech-slodownik-opowiada-o-barbarzynstwie-rosjan-w-czasie-ii-wojny/3kzh9gn,79cfc278

Mikołaj Podolski

April 18, 2022, 12:13
A Soviet soldier argues over a bicycle with a resident of Berlin, 1945.A Soviet soldier argues over a bicycle with a resident of Berlin, 1945 - Keystone / Getty Images / Getty Images



Lech Słodownik is a historian who has researched, inter alia, the history of villages where the Red Army used to slaughter civilians during the "liberation"

Mikołaj Podolski: You know the history of the bestiality of the Red Army in East Prussia. Do you see the similarity to what is happening now in Ukraine?

Lech Słodownik: I see that not much has changed in the Russian army. A certain historical continuity has been preserved, the roots of which are even deeper. Let me remind you, for example, of the massacre of Praga in Warsaw in 1794, at the end of the Kościuszko Uprising.

The government announces a correction of the Polish Order. Müller speaks of "error" and "inaccuracies"
However, during World War I, the tsarist army completely destroyed many cities in East Prussia, incl. Gołdap, Szczytno, Olsztynek, Nidzica and towns located in the area of ​​today's Kaliningrad Oblast. Even the roof of the beautiful basilica in Krosno near Orneta was damaged. The tsarist army also committed crimes, for example in the village of Aschwangen (today's Tiszano in the Kaliningrad Oblast) on the border with Poland, where soldiers of the tsarist army shot over 250 civilians.

The slaughter of Praga in the painting by Aleksander Orłowski.The slaughter of Praga in the painting by Aleksander Orłowski. - Press materials



As for World War II, we must remember that East Prussia was the first German area on the Red Army's road to Berlin. She began to take measures there for what happened to the Soviet Union of its inhabitants when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Already after World War II, the Germans called the cruel behavior of the Red Army soldiers "Rache", or "rematch". Revenge for what, incl. The Einsatzgruppen SS operated on the territory of the Soviet Union.

Prince Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten from Słobity near today's Pasłęk wrote about this in his memoirs: "On the one hand, he was indignant when he heard and saw how special SS units [Einsatzgruppen] shot Jews near Lviv when he looked at the villages that were burned down unnecessarily, and on the other hand, he was proud to be a cog in an enormous machinery rolling eastward and destroying Bolshevism. "

How was this cruelty of the Russians manifested?

It was incredible simply destroying everything just to destroy. Of course, many objects also suffered from heavy fighting. Please remember that the war was slowly coming to an end, and the Soviet tactics consisted mainly in conquering East Prussian cities and towns with heavy artillery, in which they had several advantages over the Wehrmacht.

Many objects were destroyed on purpose and others accidentally. For example, most mansions and palaces were not destroyed on purpose, although there were, of course, exceptions to this rule. Among them was a property located in Ogrodzieniec, between Kisielice and Iława, where the family seat of Hindenburg, who had previously been the president of the Weimar Republic, was located. There, however, it was more about revenge for the fact that Hindenburg, as a commander, inflicted a disastrous defeat on the tsarist army under the command of General Samsonov during World War I, in the battle of Tannenberg, near today's Olsztynek.

There were many legends about it, for example that allegedly the Soviets had a list of houses, mansions and palaces to be burned. This issue was explained, among others, by the already mentioned prince Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten in the book "Memories of old East Prussia" ("Erinnerungen eines alten Ostpreußen"). He was the owner of a huge entailment near Pasłęk and came from one of the largest noble families in East Prussia. It wasn't a list, according to him. Simply, most of the stately houses, Bauer mansions and palaces, such as the one in Kamieniec or Słobity, became for a short time the seats of the Soviet commandant's offices.



Historians generally say little or not at all about it, but after the war, starting in May 1945, it is necessary to talk about the so-called during the Soviet period, and not only in East Prussia. The period of Soviet power lasted here for many months after the end of World War II. And then there was no electricity, but there was alcohol that poured in streams in the Russian army. It was the order of the day. Sometimes there was a shortage of fuel, so the Russians smoked whatever they could, e.g. chairs, antique furniture, door and window joinery or broken floors.

And if someone drank too much and smoked badly in the stove, fires would start. If such a manor house, palace or manor house burned down, they moved on to the next one. And so on all the time. As a result, many magnificent buildings in East Prussia burned down. Mostly by accident.

You mentioned "Rache", or "rematch". It did not take much to arouse the will to retaliate against the Germans, who for several years of the Second World War had pushed the wartime savagery to an unprecedented level.

Most of the soldiers were additionally motivated to retaliate. The main propagator of the slogan "kill the German, otherwise he will kill you" was the Russian writer Ilya Erenburg . It did not matter whether the killed German was a man, woman or child. Erenburg wrote a letter to a Russian branch not to stick around. Other writers joined in these calls: Alexei Tolstoy and Mikhail Sholokhov.

As a historian, you are not surprised by what is happening now in Ukraine.

This, unfortunately, has become a Russian trend. The tsarist army and the Red Army only perpetuated this, and we can see the effects today in Ukraine. I think that it is partly to blame for the fact that the Russian army has never been a uniform army, but a conglomerate of different cultures and different perceptions of the world. Some in this army come from distant corners of Russia, several thousand kilometers from Moscow, they come, for example, from Altai, Vladivostok, and Siberia. They often travel thousands of kilometers thinking that they will return home afterwards and no one will know what they did there in Ukraine. Such a situation, unfortunately, ensures anonymity of this collection.

In Bucza, civilians were murdered by the Russians from areas beyond Mongolia. I myself heard cruel stories about what the Red Army was doing in northern Poland, and Asian faces appeared frequently in these reports. We know that this is a deliberate action by the command of the Russian armed forces: to send as many soldiers as possible from the Far East, because the most influential and willing to possible protests in the European part of Russia will not identify with the Yakutian soldier as much as with the soldier from St. Petersburg. But were the Asiatic Russians really distinguished by such great cruelty during World War II?

In the regions I researched - yes. In my last book, "Old Pasłęckie and Elbląskie Villages," I described how the Red Army entered small villages in the former Pasłęk County and what it did there. Soviet soldiers were often referred to by the Germans as "Asiaten", "Kalmuken" or "Mongolen", or even bluntly "Krzywoślipie" because of their appearance, not to mention what they were doing.

It is no secret that after the German attack on the USSR, the inhabitants of the eastern territories were conscripted en masse to the Red Army, because by the end of 1941 over 3.5 million Soviet soldiers had been taken prisoner by the Germans. There were soldiers in this army who did not know the Russian language at all.

You mentioned the Germans, but Polish civilians also died at the hands of the Russians.

Of course. In the aforementioned book, I described the case of the murders of Soviet soldiers on Polish settlers in the village of Grünhagen, known as Wołyniec, because the inhabitants were from Wołyń, which is today's Zielonka Pasłęcka.

And it was like this: After the village had been seized, the Red Army soldiers shot and killed seven of its German inhabitants. Robbery murders have also been reported in the village and its vicinity. Such an event took place in Wołyniec on September 27, 1945. The local mayor Franciszek Szypszak, who was soon to assume the position of mayor in nearby Marianka, opposed the theft of the cow by two soldiers. Although they withdrew from the theft, but driving the car past the wagon, they gave a burst of pepesha towards the village administrator who was going to notify the militia in Pasłęk. His brother, Michał Szypszak, died together with the mayor.

The drunkenness of the Soviet soldiers and their "games" amazed even many who did not pour out at the collar either. An example of this is the part of the former wind flag, which is still present in Zielonka Pasłęcka, shot like a sieve, from the tower of the local church, which is now displayed on the lawn in front of the temple.

My father told me that the Soviet soldiers constantly looted and took away post-German property, but also caused quarrels and fights. It happened that one of them threw a grenade into a place where dancing was taking place. Fortunately, this grenade did not explode.

The lives of the remaining Germans, and also of Poles, were of little importance to them. They treated the forced laborers from Russia or Ukraine who worked for the Germans even worse. They had virtually no chance of surviving. Ukrainian women were often raped for helping the Germans.

What was the entry of the Red Army soldiers into the village like?

I can tell you how it happened in my home village of Rychliki. The Soviets drove in with accordion music, sitting on tanks, and immediately found the owner of the colonial store, who was German, and demanded that he give them vodka. When he said that there was no vodka at the time, he was hit in the face with a butt and his eye was knocked out. They later set fire to his store.

In Rychliky, Soviet soldiers destroyed a total of 18 buildings, and yet there were no hostilities or enemy troops there. In addition, several rich Bauer manors in the area were destroyed. This is how "liberation" began. Then there were constant fights, both over alcohol and after drinking.

Was there any case of this "release" that shocked you particularly?

This is the famous crime in Nemmersdorf (now: Mayakovskoye in the Kaliningrad Oblast) of October 1944. It was the first German village into which the Soviet army then entered. The Red Army soldiers literally shot the entire village, all 82 people who decided to stay there. They nailed victims to the barn door, chopped off their heads with sabers, and raped all girls and women aged 8 to 80.

We know this because two days after the crime, the Wehrmacht recaptured the village and established an international commission. This case triggered a great exodus of Germans who began to flee East Prussia, a panic was born, which was later called "the panic after Nemmersdorf".

The Red Army enters Estonia, October 1939.The Red Army enters Estonia, October 1939 - © Creative Commons
Tragedies happened, among others in Rastenburg (Kętrzyn), which the Soviets captured without a fight. And without a fight, there are no orders and promotions, so they began to destroy the center, set fire to the center and murder the Germans who remained in the city. Today the plaque in the local hospital says about it.

It was similar in Bartenstein (Bartoszyce). Some NKVD activist decided that the glasses-wearing Germany was "bourgeois intelligentsia" and as such had no right to exist, and should therefore be liquidated. So one day the Soviets killed every German wearing glasses in this city.

Some experts speaking about the war in Ukraine claim that it has been accepted in the Russian army for years that women from the conquered territories are the prey of the war and that you can do whatever you want with them.

I don't know how it is now, but it was to some extent in the past. But not every Soviet soldier stole, raped and killed. There is an account of Nidzica, where among the Red Army soldiers was the later eminent literary historian and dissident Lew Kopielew, who knew German well and was a translator in the Red Army.

Kopielew protested when Soviet soldiers took sheets of bread from one of the German women, began to rob her and pushed her. Then a certain Major Bielajew jumped up to him and shouted at him that he could not defend the German woman, because she was a "Germanic spear". One of the Soviet soldiers knocked over this woman, put the barrel to her head and shot her shot in front of Kopelewo. And he was soon arrested for this type of attitude, because he had more than one similar incident. Instead, he spent 10 years in labor camps. Besides, Alexander Solzhenitsyn suffered a similar fate.

Looking at the current war in Ukraine, one can conclude that little has changed in the Russian army since then.

I admit that I cannot understand it myself. More than once I went to the Kaliningrad Oblast, I know many Russians, ordinary people, and I have friends among them. I don't know why many of them have such instincts, such ghosts ...

This is probably largely the fault of the command for allowing such crimes. The Russian army has always been famous for its very poor logistics, i.e. food, uniforms, etc. Each soldier always had to ensure that he was full and had somewhere to sleep. Apparently that has remained to this day. This certainly contributes to the fact that they steal chickens and pigs from Ukrainian farms. The worst instinct to destroy, however, is in order to destroy. After all, they were able to burn even priceless works of art for no reason, as was the case in the representative palaces of the East Prussian aristocracy.

However, we should always remember that not all Russians were like that and not all are like that. Some of my friends from Kaliningrad write to me that they are simply afraid to tell the truth at home, because most of them support Putin. They are even afraid to write to me on Facebook because they know their authorities can check it.

Does your historical knowledge show that we can expect more Russian genocide acts in Ukraine?

Unfortunately yes. The Russians allow it because they have horrible propaganda. Destruction of civilian buildings will also be sustained according to the "destroy to destroy" principle. Moreover, Putin continues to build the myth of a great, invincible, liberating and heroic Russian army. And yet it will not be long on May 9, the Victory Day, which is celebrated very loudly in Putin's Russia.

I will deviate from strictly war topics so that we end this conversation with at least one positive thing. In Poland, also in your Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, the war in Ukraine caused the last monuments to the Red Army soldiers to disappear from the cities. Do you think that is good?

Yes, but only if we are talking about public places. It was like that with the monument of General Czerniaków , who died in mysterious circumstances near the town of Melsack (today: Pieniężno). Czerniakhovsky earlier became famous for the pogrom of Home Army officers in Vilnius, which gave him the nickname "the Home Army murderer from Vilnius". His monument was completely dismantled a few years ago, despite many protests, also from some circles in Poland.

However, I think that no one should be disturbed by such monuments in the cemeteries where the Red Army soldiers were buried. For example, near Braniewo, nearly 31 thousand of them were buried there. It is the largest collective cemetery in northern Poland, usually where young people, and even very young, are buried. There is also a cemetery in Elbląg with over 2,000 Soviet soldiers.

I omit the fact that many of them died from drunkenness, practiced by them on an industrial scale, or as a result of venereal diseases. Such commemorations may stay there, as long as such monuments do not have a sickle and a hammer, as they are forbidden symbols in our country, just like the Nazi swastika.

***

Lech Słodownik is a historian, regionalist, translator, author of historical books and winner of the Special Award of the Mayor of Elbląg for 2007 and the Cultural Award of the Elbląg Starost for 2017.