I think that the most compelling thing from the NPR article titled, Russia deports thousands of Ukrainian children. Investigators say that’s a war crime” that they call out Russia and make it clear that what they did to Ukrainian children isn’t right. I think that Russia’s statements on what these Ukrainian children are doing in Russia demonstrate the frightening reality that relies on the honesty of foreign countries. For Russia, hiding what the detainment of these children entails is a matter of lying and deceiving other countries that have these children’s best interests in mind. I think that a thought that came up throughout this article for me, too, was just how difficult it must be for these researchers to find out truths about what is happening to migrants and distinguish between what is true and what other countries are promoting. For the Yale team to claim and verify that the Russian government has detained at least 6,000 children, the amount of effort that comes with proving these governments accountable is an astronomical next step in protecting refugees from types of distress camps that may subject them to. The re-education programs that the article details also sound like complete brainwashing propaganda to groom these Ukrainian children into being a new generation of Russian government advocates. In the article, this was apparent to me when it read, ​​”There’s a very large amount of material related to the patriotic education that they undergo while they are in camps,” he added. The lessons are designed, he says, to instill loyalty to Russia and promote Moscow’s version of the war.” 

 

The TIME article was the next assigned reading I looked at. What caught my attention with this reading was how this program could categorize and organize these war crimes. With so many war crimes either going unattended or not receiving the reaction they should have given, they are hard to change countries and keep them accountable for their actions. Tangible programming like the apps, chatbots, and websites designed by these Ukrainian officials can help ensure that war crimes are being kept track of and that countries are being held appropriately accountable. The article raises this concern and idea outright, stating that “What all this will yield is still unclear. International war crimes cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute.” Despite what seems to be a public opinion that is not necessarily super sure how this technology will be used, hearing how AI and these various levels of technology will be helpful in war, war crimes, and conflicts offered a glimpse of some of the more optimistic elements of these technologies. 

 

The following article I read by Foreign Affairs did an incredible job at depicting just how disgusting these war crimes are and just how crucial it is for those who identify as Ukrainians to receive justice for what has been done to their people. It seems like a constant cat-and-mouse game of countries committing crimes and quickly trying to hide the details of their actions. Consistently, the victim country is attempting to chase after the truth and to hold the “cat” accountable for what they have done to the other “mice.”

 

The YouTube documentary was incredibly insightful in terms of what the future of journalism could look like, especially given that technology is only continuing to develop and become even more profound than it is now. I also liked the idea of open-source journalism and the role that open-source journalism may play in unbiased reporting and authentic reporting. One of the earliest examples that reinforced the significance of this type of reporting was the fact that Chinese officials completely denied a camp existed. However, open-source researchers were able to shine a light on those denials.