The South African newspaper Mail & Guardian kindly agreed to print my article about Putin’s new strategy: unable to break the Ukrainian army, he tries to break Ukrainian civilians.
As the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion approaches, Putin has begun to think he has found a way to break Ukraine’s resilience: turning its cities into frozen deadly traps.
Every evening, dark fleets of missiles and drones launch towards Ukrainian cities—large and small—with one goal: to freeze millions of civilians—young and old, whose only fault is not wanting to be part of Russia.
The most insane part is that the civilians are not “collateral damage.” In this case, they are the target. Leading Russian politicians and experts openly talk about the need to completely destroy Ukrainian cities. As collective punishment for Ukraine’s refusal to surrender. And as a key to the eventual occupation of all 24 regions of Ukraine (instead of just one, as it is now).
After four years of the Russian army failing to break the Ukrainian military, they hope to win by breaking Ukrainian civilians—men and women, the elderly and children.
Amid the South African summer, it’s hard to imagine what it means to be without electricity and heating during a European winter in a modern metropolis.
It means bomb shelters filled with young children shivering from the cold, despite the warmest clothing. It means elderly people lying under five blankets in the darkness of their homes on the 15th floor of high-rises when the elevator no longer works, and there’s no one to help.
It means children with special needs desperately screaming when a Russian drone hits a neighboring building, and their exhausted mothers have nothing left but to hug them and cry into their pillows.
It means living with minus 20 degrees outside and barely plus 10 at home.
It means (if everything goes according to Russia’s plan), that large cities could turn into frozen cemeteries for millions. This is precisely what Russia is trying to do right now, while the world watches the events live, between soccer broadcasts and the latest Netflix series. The goal: to cause a massive civilian collapse and the exodus of millions. At the very least.
And at most—to make Ukraine (the largest country entirely located in Europe) completely uninhabitable for generations to come, as they have already done with hundreds of towns and villages in eastern Ukraine, which they promised to “liberate.”
Some say: why don’t you, Ukraine and Russia, find a compromise, come to an understanding, after all, you are “cousins,” millions of people living nearby, with the same appearance and the same names and surnames.
Well, firstly, it’s hard to “come to an understanding” if you want to live and they want you dead. What kind of “compromise” can there be between life and death, freedom and slavery?
For example, in the case of South Africa: what is the compromise between freedom and apartheid? Half-freedom and half-apartheid? Being free half the day and spending the rest walking on the side of the sidewalk marked “black only”?
Freedom is not something people sacrifice for the sake of compromise. And if they do sacrifice it, it means only one thing: their will is broken. This has not happened with Ukraine.
The fact that millions of Russians have the same names and surnames as the millions of people they are literally trying to freeze to death and tear to pieces does not make the situation easier, but harder. If someone broke into your home, killed your children, and raped your wife, would it be easier or harder for you because that person is your “cousin”?
Would you still want to see this person in family photo albums, or would you erase even the smallest reminders that they ever existed in your life? And most importantly: could you give this person – the occupier and the rapist – part of your home, freedom, and life?
Unfortunately, the murder of millions of Ukrainians has become a serious source of income for millions of Russians. Ordinary people make a living by killing other ordinary people. And it’s not just about the military, who follow orders and pull thousands of triggers daily.
It’s also about Russian scientists devising ways to kill as many civilians as possible. It’s about Russian infrastructure specialists pondering how to freeze millions of Ukrainian children in what’s left of their children’s rooms. It’s about Russian diplomats marketing the seizure of foreign land and the killing of an entire nation to the world as “anti-imperialism.” And yes, it’s about the Russian clergy who portray these horrific crimes as a struggle for Christian values.
However, people have memory. Ukrainians who survive this war will live not only with endless trauma but also with a clear understanding: no matter how close you are to Russia today, no matter how many friendship agreements you sign now, tomorrow it will mean nothing.
Your life will mean nothing. The lives of your children will mean nothing. The only thing that will matter will be the imperial voices in the head of the “dear leader” and the willingness of millions of his subjects to obey and make a living by ravaging other countries. Unfortunately, this is the nature of all dictatorships with imperial ambitions.
If Russia ever had the chance to break Ukraine’s will, it was four years ago when many Ukrainians were confused and frightened. Today, the only way to conquer Ukraine is to kill Ukraine. Which Russia is trying to do by using the harsh winter on one hand, and the weakness of some of Ukraine’s partners on the other.
There are certain hopes for a so-called “peace process.” But these hopes can only be realized when the countries of the world (especially Russia’s friends) come to it and say: enough, stop the killings and the seizure of other nations’ lands. Isn’t your land enough? And hasn’t there been enough of this insane bloodshed for four years?
