Freeze out: A snow covered Kyiv-Obolon, Ukraine. Russia is using the
harsh winter to try to defeat Ukraine. Photo: Konrad Lembcke
As we approach the fourth anniversary of Russia’s bloody full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he has found the key to breaking Ukraine’s resilience: turning its cities into frozen death traps.
Every night, dark swarms of missiles and deadly drones take off towards Ukrainian cities, big and small, with one purpose: to freeze millions of civilians, young and old, whose only fault is that they do not want to be part of Russia.
Civilians are not collateral damage. They are the targets. Russia’s leading politicians and experts speak openly about the need for the annihilation of Ukrainian cities as punishment for refusing to submit and as the key to finally occupying all 24 of Ukraine’s provinces (instead of one, as of now).
After the Russian army failed to break Ukraine militarily for about four years, they hope to win by breaking the spirit of its civilians.
Amid the South African summer, it is hard to comprehend what it means to be without power and heat during an Eastern European winter in a modern city. It means bomb shelters filled with children shivering, despite wearing their warmest clothes.
It means older people lying in the dark under five blankets on the 15th floor of their flats, as the lift no longer works and they have no one to help them. It means children with special needs screaming when a Russian drone hits a neighbouring building and their exhausted mothers can do nothing but hug them and cry into their pillows. It means existing with -20°C outside your home and barely 10°C inside.
It means — if things go according to Russia’s plan — large cities becoming frozen cemeteries for millions.
This is what Russia is trying to do, with the whole world watching live, between football broadcasts and another Netflix series: causing civilian collapse and, at the very least, the exodus of millions.
At worst, it seeks to make Ukraine — the largest country fully situated in Europe — unliveable for generations to come, as Russia has done to hundreds of cities and villages in Ukraine’s east that it vowed to “liberate”.
Some say: Why don’t Ukraine and Russia find a compromise, get along — after all, you are “cousins”, millions of people living next to one another, with the same looks and the same first and last names.
First of all, it is hard to “get along” if you want to live and the other side wants you to die.
What is the “compromise” between life and death, freedom and slavery? For reference, in South Africa’s case, what would the compromise between freedom and apartheid be? Half freedom and half apartheid? Being free for half a day and then walking on the assigned side of the pavement for the rest of it? Freedom is not something people compromise on. And if they do, it means only one thing: their will is broken. Ukraine is not.
The fact that millions of Russians have the same first and last names as millions of people they are trying to freeze to death and blow to pieces makes matters harder, not easier.
If someone were to invade your home, kill your children and rape your wife, would the fact that this person was your “cousin” make the situation easier or harder? Would you want this person in your family photo albums or would you erase even the slightest reminders that he had ever existed in your life? Most importantly: Would you be able to give this person part of your home, freedom and life?
Sadly, the killing of millions of Ukrainians has become a source of income for millions of Russians. Ordinary people make a living by killing other ordinary people. It is not only about the military fulfilling orders and pulling thousands of triggers every day. It is also about Russia’s scientists creating ways to kill as many civilians as possible. It is about Russia’s infrastructure specialists finding ways to freeze millions of Ukrainian children in what is left of their bedrooms.
It is about Russian diplomats selling a land grab and the murder of a nation to the world as “anti-imperialism”. And yes, it is about Russian clergy presenting the horrific deeds as a fight for Christian values.
People remember. Ukrainians who survive this war will live not only with never-ending trauma but with a clear understanding: no matter how close you are to Russia today, no matter how many friendship treaties you sign with it now, tomorrow it might mean nothing.
Your life will mean nothing. The lives of your children will mean nothing. The only thing that will mean anything will be the imperial voices in the “dear leader’s” head, and the readiness of millions to obey and make a living by turning other countries unliveable. Sadly, that is the essence of all dictatorships with imperial streaks.
If there was ever a time to break Ukraine’s will, it was four years ago, when many Ukrainians were confused and scared. Today, the only way to conquer Ukraine is to kill Ukraine. This is what Russia is trying to do, using the harsh winter on one side and the weakness of some of Ukraine’s partners on the other.
There are some hopes for the so-called “peace process”. But the only way these hopes can materialise is if countries around the world, especially Russia’s friends, approach Russia and say: Enough is enough. Stop the killing and the grabbing of other nations’ land. Do you not have enough land? Has four years of this insane bloodshed not been long enough?
Dr Olexander Scherba is the ambassador of Ukraine to South Africa