BERLIN – Russia’s war on Ukraine is senseless, brutal and, most of all, unjustified. This is primarily leveraged on the Ukrainian people, whose state faces an existential threat to its independence and sovereignty, and whose supposed allies in the West took far too long to finally offer it only part of the support it will need to defend itself against the Russian invader.
It is also leveraged on the Russian people, held hostage by a criminal regime they have no say in choosing, and which purports to act in their name. It is telling that the state-controlled media continues, absurdly, to call Vladimir Putin’s war on all of Ukraine a “special operation in the Donbas”, and has threatened media outlets that use the words “war” and “invasion”. State TV focuses on the supposed threat from Ukraine to refugees from the Donbas, and steers well clear of showing strikes on Kyiv. Access to Twitter and Facebook, where ordinary Russians might see clips of missile strikes on apartment buildings or burning ambulances, has been limited by the authorities.
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