Ukraine’s defense minister on Thursday likened his country’s month-long war with Russia to the central struggle of good versus evil in J.R.R. Tolkein’s fantasy classic “The Lord of the Rings.”
“Our only way is to withstand the onslaught of Mordor,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an address to the nation, referring to the realm of Middle-Earth ruled by the evil Sauron. “We simply cannot allow these inhuman villains to determine our future and rule on our land.”
Mr. Reznikov said the Russian invasion will not cease until it has “drowned in the blood of its own soldiers.”
More than 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, wounded or captured since the invasion began. Moscow has lost more than 100 planes, 125 helicopters, 520 tanks, and 1,500 other armored vehicles, Ukrainian defense officials said. Their figures could not be independently verified.
Ukraine said a Russian tank killed more than 50 people on March 11, when it shelled a nursing home in Kreminna, a city in the disputed Luhansk region.
“It was a deliberate killing of the defenseless — a war crime,” Mr. Reznikov said Thursday. “This is not an army. It is a gang of terrorists, criminals, and cowards.”
He accused Russia of killing more than 120 children and making orphans out of thousands of others who have been forced to endure “things we will never forgive.”
“The atrocities of Russian murderers and looters are gradually being recognized even by those who have turned a blind eye to the essence of the Kremlin regime for years,” Mr. Reznikov said. “They rape, rob, and destroy everything they cannot steal.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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