The Ukrainian Government is massacring civilians and needs to be stopped

I agree that evil is "profound immorality" and that fascist also has a nationalist and racist connotation. I now move on to address my opponent's rebuttals. "Ukraine preemptively warned civilians of the coming danger and advised them to evacuate the region." I read my opponent's source and it says: "Lysenko warned civilians to leave the areas around Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province". These are regions where the civil war has been raging on for months. This article was published on August 11. It is pointless to "warn" civilians to leave AFTER the assault has been going on for this long. If this warning was put out several weeks BEFORE the onslaught to give civilians time to leave or even gather their thoughts on the situation, that would be different. This warning was issued several months into the conflict, making it pointless. "When rebels populate civilians areas and intermingle with civilians, they jeopardize the civilians lives as well, using the civilians as--in effect--human shields." I don't see how you can use civilians as "human shields" against artillery shells and bombs. If my opponent is suggesting that the separatists are purposely going into cities to "dissuade" the Ukrainian military from using artillery, planes etc., then it obviously is not working at all. Don't forget that the separatists are civilians who decided to take up arms, so it is logical that they would stay and protect the region/city that they are from. "It would, in fact, prolong the conflict to allow the rebels to launch attacks on Ukraine without retaliating and halting their advance, and thus it is necessary to take the fight to them where possible." The rebels are not actively pushing into Pro-Ukrainian territory. In fact, the Ukrainian military is virtually the only force that is encroaching on the enemy territory in this conflict. The separatists do not want more Ukrainian land and there is no point of them trying to push into Ukraine-held territory. The want to be independent on the land that they have (Donetsk and Luhansk) and are simply trying to protect it. http://news.yahoo.com... http://www.euronews.com... http://www.aljazeera.com... "Due to the proximity of civilians and militia, some collateral damage is to be expected, but this does not meet the definition of an 'atrocity.'" There's more than just "some" collateral damage. 800 civilians have been killed and at least 2,155 injured. This is data from a month ago, meaning that the death toll (and number of injuries) has increased even further since then. http://www.nytimes.com... Ukraine's actions may not meet the definition of "atrocity", but they certainly meet the definition of "cruelty". CRUEL: b : inhuman treatment http://www.merriam-webster.com... There are many ways that the Ukrainian military could minimize civilian losses. For example, they could move to more accurate methods of eliminating the separatists instead of just bombing the area which causes very much unnecessary collateral damage since artillery fire and airstrikes are typically not very accurate. I believe that killing women, elderly and children along with the mass destruction of homes and facilities such as hospitals is inhumane. "Revolution news is clearly a pro-Russian news agency that is biased against Kiev (or at least the article cited is)" I will replace "Revolution news" with the following articles: http://www.globalresearch.ca... http://www.voltairenet.org... "HRW was unable to definitely confirm that the Grad rockets were fired by Kiev's forces or to assess the exact extent of the damage levied by the alleged Grad rocketfire." There is no other logical source of this damage. The Ukrainian military has Grad rocket systems for sure, the rebels most likely don't. In fact, the Ukrainian military recently hosted a parade in which they showed their Grad rocket systems. https://news.vice.com... It is much more likely for a professional, government-funded military to have such technology rather than the untrained separatists who decided to take up arms. "As for the third source, it offers no concrete evidence to support its claims, and so is not to be trusted." The article clearly says: "These killings were ordered by the government of president Petro Poroshenko. The evidence amply confirms that these killings are organized by the Armed Forces and National Guard." The simple fact that the rebels lack air-power and heavy artillery guns is enough to conclude that the Ukrainian military is responsible for most, if not all, civilian bombings. Also consider that there is not a single reason why the separatists would target areas populated with civilians. http://www.globalresearch.ca... I now move on to support my claims that the Ukrainian government is "corrupt, evil and fascist". The fact that the Ukrainian government is relentlessly bombing defenseless men, women, children and elders is enough to prove that the government can be regarded as evil. We established that the definition of "corrupt" is "1a : morally degenerate and perverted". Once again, the above proves that the Ukrainian government is morally degenerate as they massacre civilians. I also claim that the Ukrainian government is fascist. It is no secret that there are several members of the Ukrainian government that are either members or founders of the Svoboda political party, which is a far right sector, Nazi party. http://www.foreignpolicy.com... http://www.globalresearch.ca... I await my opponent's response.