When an Invasion is a War

When an Invasion is a War

"We know that last night around midnight a drone dropped some so-far unknown explosive device, and the people that were in and around the Mariupol metal plant, there were three people, they began to feel unwell."

"They were taken to hospital and their lives were not in danger."

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk region governor

"It's far more scary to remain and burn in your sleep from a Russian shell."

"Evacuate, with every day the situation is getting worse. Take your essential items and head to the pickup point."

Serhiy Gaidal, Luhansk region governor

Service members of pro-Russian troops ride on armoured vehicles in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict on a road leading to the city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 15, 2022. REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov

 

In declaring that peace talks were going nowhere and would not be expected to continue Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was time to consider altering the status of Russia in Ukraine as war shedding the term invasion. This, an earned punishment for Ukraine for having the audacity to resist Russian troops' advances in Ukraine, shattering its sovereignty along with its plans for the future. Above all, the hostile act of the Ukraine military in shooting two Neptune missiles at Russia's 510-crew Moskva battleship was an act of war, so war it would be.

 

As though calling Russia's incursion into Ukraine, an 'invasion' would soften the perception of the Russian military having committed war crimes against the Ukrainian civilian population. As though Russia's 'invasion' would preclude the constant shelling and artillery fire that devastated Ukraine's towns and cities and left behind shattered ruins of infrastructure. As though during a mere 'invasion' deliberate murder of unarmed men, women and children would not be noticed.

Ukraine's military has given an excellent account of itself in defending the country against the Russian invasion. The body count of Russian servicemen and the astonishing number of deaths among generals and commanders speak as well to the Ukrainian defence of their land and their people. Destroyed tanks, planes shot down, reclamation of towns and villages. And the shocking discovery of corpses lying in the street, of bodies stacked in mass graves.

Dare one ask: if this is what can occur during an invasion, what horrors will eventuate during a war? A war pursued by Russia, an honourable war, claims Mr. Putin, a war to 'rescue' Ukraine from the diabolical hold of the West through its puppet, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is honourable to butcher innocent men, women and children, but an act of despicable dishonour to sink a Russian warship in the Black Sea. This is the ship whose command was destined, according to Moscow's plans, to lead a naval assault on Ukraine.

No matter, furious but committed to total destruction of Ukraine, Mr. Putin intends for Russia to forge ahead, insisting Russia is prepared to "rhythmically and calmly" get on with its vital operation for there are goals to achieve on 'security'. Which is to say, the obliteration of Ukraine's neo-Nazis and fascists, to deliver a destroyed nation and a vanishing population from the grasping claws of the far right. Oddly enough the international community, witness to the conflagration of a country, now regards Russia as fascist.

"That blitzkrieg on which our foes were counting did not work", Putin said speaking contemptuously of sanctions whose impact has been minimally successful; a financial irritant, nothing more, and much less. The world is still reeling from the impact of the discoveries made of civilian bodies littering freed towns and villages of people summarily murdered, where torture and rape appear to have constituted a recreational period for Russian soldiers, well known for their proclivity with both.

Mariupol's agony continues. The holdout of Ukrainian marines in the Azovstal industrial district appears to be the sole remaining defence of the port city so important to Putin's plans. Consolidating the gains made by ethnic Russian rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas and establishing, with the capture of Mariupol, a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula. Absorbing into Russia land that is Ukraine's as Putin's military slowly and steadily, at great cost, eviscerates Ukraine.