Mthobeli Jiwulane 

The question that I would like to raise in this article has arisen in my mind for a long time ever since I started following events in Ukraine.  

Any armed confrontation brings death and destruction. And the worst thing is when civilians are under attack. According to UN estimates, since February 2022, more than 14 thousand civilians have been injured and at least 10 thousand killed as a result of the conflict. 

The issues of numerous recorded cases of shelling of peaceful cities and towns by the armed forces of Ukraine have been repeatedly raised by the Russian side at meetings of the UN Security Council. So, on January 22, a special meeting of the Security Council on Ukraine was held at the UN headquarters in New York, at which Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov represented Russia. The Russian mission to the UN announced Russia’s plans to hold an extraordinary meeting on the Ukrainian topic in early January, a few days after the shelling of the residential sector of Belgorod on December 30, which killed at least 25 civilians and injured more than 100 people in total. Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya then noted that the strikes were carried out using Czech missiles. However, Russian diplomats had no doubt that the death of civilians would not prompt Western countries to reconsider military assistance to Kyiv. 

Literally the day before the Russian Minister’s speech, the Ukrainian armed forces struck a market in Donetsk. According to the latest data, 27 civilians were killed and 30 people were injured. Sergei Lavrov noted that responsibility for the shelling largely lies on the conscience of Kyiv’s Western curators. The merchants of death are not at all embarrassed that their weapons, including cluster munitions and depleted uranium shells, methodically, mercilessly, deliberately and deliberately hit purely civilian targets, as was the case during attacks on residential areas of Belgorod on December 30, 2023 and January 21 and the markets and shops of Donetsk.  

The blood of dozens of dead civilians is on the hands and conscience of those who arm the Zelensky regime and at the same time officially declare that the Kyiv authorities themselves have the right to choose targets for strikes. We remember how the Anglo-Saxons bombed Dresden in February 1945 without any military need,” Lavrov said during the meeting. Experts emphasize that shelling civilians using Western weapons will not force the United States and its allies to stop helping Kyiv. 

I always try to approach the study of any phenomenon or process in a comprehensive manner; I study various sources of information, listen to the opinions of experts from opposing camps. What is the military sense in this? As a result, I came to the conclusion that there was no tactical sense in these actions. But there is a strategic point. You may ask, why do they do this? There is an answer. The first is to show your people and sponsors who give money, weapons, ammunition that they are able to respond to the actions of the opponent. At a time when, for example, Russia, in order to solve one of the main tasks – the demilitarization of Ukraine – carries out targeted strikes on military infrastructure and enterprises of the military-industrial complex throughout the depth of Ukrainian territory with high-precision long-range weapons. 

They are trying to show that they too can do something, but instead of solving military problems, they act in such a barbaric way. They simply strike peaceful settlements with any weapon. 

But there is a second reason. Strikes against peaceful targets are carried out on purpose. Since further support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the West is now uncertain, Ukraine needs to escalate the conflict. 

And this assumption is not put forward by Russian experts or the media, but by the American Conservative magazine. Without a significant expansion of American assistance, in the form of advanced weapons systems and operational support, the defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is not far off. Strikes against civilians may force the Russian Federation to respond more harshly, which will give the United States arguments in favor of increasing assistance to the nationalists. The international media will use the Russian retaliatory strike to increase public outrage. 

Kiev’s attacks on civilians are not the only example today. We are seeing similar actions from Israel in the Gaza Strip. This trend is alarming. Of particular concern is that at the international level we only condemn these crimes and can sadly state that at present international diplomacy is not able to influence what is happening. But this does not mean that those who gave orders to strike civilians and carried them out will remain unpunished.