Destroying Ukraine : Russia's Mission

A Ukrainian soldier takes cover during Russian shelling outside the city of Lysychansk on May 23.

"The decision to launch our special military operation was something that we were forced to do, they forced our hand. [The decision had been] difficult [but reaffirmed the Kremlin’s commitment to achieving its military goals]."

"All the missions we have set for ourselves and all the goals of the special military operation will be completed in full."

"This [inflation] has started long before our special military operation in the Donbas, and they’re blaming us. They made their prices soar and they’re blaming us."

"[The country -- Russia -- remains open for business] with those who want it.""The economic blitzkrieg against Russia was doomed from the beginning."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

President Putin also implored Russia's major businesses to keep working in Russia  Reuters

We are going to liberate all of the Donbas."

"Of course it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experience that after withdrawal, provocations start."

Russian Ambassador to London Andrei Kelin

That's the Russian message to the world at large in a nutshell. It is Russia's right and obligation to de-Nazify Ukraine, to remove its fascist government, and all the reactions that have taken place, imposing sanctions on Russia, providing Ukraine with high-grade, powerful weaponry to counter Russia's superior military technology is gross interference and as such, inexcusable. As is Ukraine's reaction to the invasion, choosing to react through defensive conflict rather than sensibly surrendering to the inevitable. 

The destroyed bridge connecting the city of Lysychansk with the city of Syevyerodonetsk on May 22.

And if the world is aghast at Russia's 'scorched-earth' policy, it should be known that the vast infrastructure destruction, the flattening of towns, the ruination of civilian buildings and  homes and industries was brought on by Ukrainian stubborn intransigence, in countering Russia's humanitarian mission by its insistence on retaining territory meant for Russian occupation. Ukraine's incessant urging of its Western allies to continue sending it lethal weaponry goads the Kremlin to its commitment to liberate Ukraine; it must take responsibility for the duration of the war, as a result.

This Orwellian introversion of logic may appear puzzling to rational minds, but speculation that Vladimir Putin has become a monster of irrationality is beyond dispute to even the most casual of onlookers. Creating a mission of deliverance from a non-existent threat to Russia while its leader transforms his country into a lethal wrecking ball, flattening and destroying another country, killing tens of thousands of people and condemning the world community for its horrified reaction and support for Putin's victim, reflects his paranoia.

A man sits next to his horse during mortar shelling in Syevyerodonetsk on May 18.

Ukraine remains intent on its own mission, to protect its public, to defend its territory, to strike its enemy as hard as it can to impress upon Moscow that its viciousness has consequences that will threaten its own stability and longevity, not merely Ukraine's alone. Mr. Putin plays his trump card, the dependence of European countries in the West on his energy resources. That much of the impoverished world is also dependent on grains and edible oils for its existence and food security, now threatened by the Kremlin's blockading of Ukraine's shipping of those resources is another story.

At a Group of 20 meeting, Western diplomats urged Russia to allow Kyiv to ship blockaded Ukrainian grain to the hungry world awaiting relief from food shortages. Leaving Sergei Lavrov, Vladimir Putin's top diplomatic representative to strike back in angry denial. Russia's Ambassador to Britain hinted not of a pull-back from Ukraine's east and south now increasingly under Russian control, but the possibility of an increase in the severity and a possible widening of the conflict.

Ukrainian soldiers ride atop a self-propelled howitzer amid Russia's attack on Ukraine in the eastern Donetsk region on July 8.