In July, the U.N. recorded the highest mortality rates among civilians in Ukraine since March 2022. Russia also reports more civilian deaths caused by Ukrainian attacks, even though, unlike Moscow, Kyiv does not deliberately target civilians but aims to bring the war “where it came from.“
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal best described the situation when talking to me about the attacks on the energy system last month: “It’s like the 12th round and each boxer hopes their rival will fall first.”
While troops on the frontline are largely stuck, with neither side making much progress on the ground, it’s us, civilians, who are being targeted more and more frequently.
Ukrainian military analyst Mykola Bielieskov called it “a mutual driving of each other into the Stone Age, with the hope to do it before the other side does.”
While our soldiers hold the Russian army at the front line, it’s ordinary Ukrainians — with our mental fortitude, our ability to outlive yet another missile, our capacity to adapt and go to work to keep the economy running no matter what — who will eventually decide the outcome of this war, Vyshlinsky said.
“As Mr. Tolstoy said, this is a tactic of deliberate exhaustion of civilians, pushing the rear to accept a war outcome unfavorable to the state,” Vyshlinsky added.
So we must endure until the other fighter falls.
And first, we need to wait for the best words that can boom from our loudspeakers: Air raid alert is over!