The operation has been going on for a week now. Information on its aims and goals is sketchy and needs confirmation. Nevertheless, we can assess the actions of the Russian authorities.
The Kremlin is so blinded by its deranged imperial ambitions that even now, when fighting is occurring on Russian territory, it doesn’t treat civilian lives with any urgency.
Russia still doesn’t recognize the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a war. It has not declared martial law. The indefinite mobilization declared in September 2022 was “partial,” even though such a term does not exist in the law. At the same time, the declaration of the general mobilization is only legally possible under martial law.
Rallies and any other forms of civic action, including one-person pickets, are banned through indirect legal means: the repressive “fake news” and “discreditation of the army” laws and selectively enforced anti-vaccine restrictions despite the official recognition that the pandemic is over. The Kremlin is in no hurry to cling to the Russian constitution. Its authority was undermined first by the 2020 reform and then by the inclusion of four Ukrainian regions into its statutes. It prefers to inhabit a pseudo-legal gray zone where concepts and laws are invented for the “special military operation.”
However, the foot-dragging and deception by the Russian authorities have another purpose. Recall their response when the war directly threatened Russian citizens. At the very beginning of the full-scale war, Putin’s bloody venture was simply fueled by the rhetoric of conquest. He boasted of the Russian army’s ability to “get to Kiev in three days” and ignored any questions and concerns. After Prigozhin’s mutiny, no one was officially held responsible for the deaths of Russian military personnel. Yet two months later, a plane with the PMC Wagner’s entire leadership crashed. In the case of the terrorist attack in, When terrorists shot unarmed people at Crocus City Hall, and then got away, the authorities simply ignored warnings from foreign intelligence services. We can see similar disregard now as the Ukrainian army occupies part of the Kursk region. We can only conclude that the official indifference to the deaths of Russian citizens is official policy.
Residents of the Sudzha district heard the first explosions on the night of August 6. However, even on August 7, Kursk authorities did not declare an evacuation. Residents had to flee the shelled town on their own. Telephone service was disconnected and first responders and local officials couldn’t explain what was happening. In an interview with the Kommersant, an eyewitness who fled to Kursk said: “The word ‘evacuation’ simply wasn’t heard in Sudzha, not on August 6 or 7… From the morning of August 6, people were getting out of town on their own, using their own vehicles… The elderly, the disabled, what are they supposed to do? In my opinion, the city officials should have gone down the streets with loudspeakers. Let people know what evacuation options are available, and what awaits them. Find out what they need right now. But none of this was done.”
Of course, no one will answer these questions because of total censorship and the lawlessness of Russian authorities. Voluntary evacuations were only announced from August 9 onwards. That is, only after shelling had been heard in certain areas. Now more than 11,000 people have been evacuated from the border areas. And people fleeing hostilities still do not know what kind of assistance and compensation is available.
Russian officials have consistently accused Ukraine of disregarding the lives and safety of civilians. Yet the Kremlin, which unleashed a full-scale war in Ukraine more than two years ago, pretends that Ukrainian forces’ incursion into Russian territory took everyone by surprise.
On August 9, the Russian Anti-Terrorist Committee began an anti-terrorist operation in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions. Once again this impulse to pretend failed to identify that this was not some group of brigands, but the Ukrainian army. In the same interview, another eyewitness raged: “And we also don’t understand why we are not being told the truth. The enemy has entered our territory. And on TV they say: “This is an emergency.” What kind of emergency is this? When foreign tanks are on our soil! This is a real war.”
Behind this refusal to call things by their true names is not just negligence. There’s a certain logic to it. For example, conscripts, whom Putin personally promised not to send to war, participate in a counterterrorist operation. If there is no war on the border, then technically no one can accuse the supreme commander-in-chief of lying. “Cherta” writes that at least one conscript has already died in the operation. Training bases are located in the border territories. Mothers of evacuated conscripts report that their sons are being forced to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defence so that it can send them to a war zone. Ukrainian media also report Russian conscripts surrendering. Such a slow evacuation may serve the purpose of accusing Ukraine of targeting civilians. This is already being promoted on pro-government Telegram channels.
Russia continues shelling Ukrainian cities. It was from the border areas that Russian troops attacked Kharkiv Oblast and Kharkiv itself. Despite this, it was as if the Kremlin completely believed that Ukraine’s Western allies would not cross Putin’s “red lines.” Or that the Ukrainian army would not use Western weaponry on Russian territory. Putin’s formula is “negotiations without preconditions” with taking “existing realities” into account. Meaning, recognition of not only the territories Russia seized but also the areas recently included in its constitution. This forces Ukraine into the only possible solution: Change those very realities on the ground.
In recent months, it’s clear from the speeches of Ukrainian leaders that Ukraine is not counting on a military victory at the moment and is ready to talk about peace. This intention was expressed in the peace conference held in Switzerland. Putin, on the other hand, continues to insist only on Ukraine’s de facto capitulation and “achieving the goals of the ‘special military operation.’” And who will now pay for his maniacal desire to subjugate both Russia and Ukraine? The innocent border residents will. They’ll pay with their lives.
