OPINION:
Now in its fifth year, Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to reveal the Kremlin’s true purpose: the subjugation of a free people and the destruction of a sovereign nation.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion in 2022, he presented his war aims as a necessity to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine, while arguing that Ukrainian identity was historical fiction.
He promised a precise military operation, but five years of conflict have exposed the divide between Moscow’s stated pretexts and its actual targets.
In recent days, Ukrainian drones reportedly struck a major oil refinery that helps sustain Russia’s war economy. A few days earlier, Russian attacks damaged the Dormition Cathedral at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a center of Ukraine’s religious life for nearly a millennium.
Ukraine targeted a facility fueling Russia’s war of aggression. The Kremlin, by contrast, targeted a place of worship.
That distinction between these targets gives the lie to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent claim that Moscow is targeting Ukraine’s “decision-making centers.” The Kremlin hopes the world will believe its war is directed against military objectives, even as Russia’s military attacks continue to target civilian centers.
The damage to Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra fits into the pattern of barbarism we have seen. According to Mission Eurasia, Russia has damaged or destroyed more than 730 religious buildings since it launched its full-scale invasion.
The Russian military has launched drone attacks against Ukrainian churches, monasteries, schools, museums, libraries, theaters and other institutions central to Ukrainian cultural and civic life. Not even the National Chernobyl Museum was off-limits to Russia’s attacks.
These are not decision-making centers by any stretch of the imagination. Russia’s repeated attacks on these places are the violent execution of Mr. Putin’s consistent claim that Ukraine has no right to exist as an independent culture.
The same pattern appears in Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children. Russia has abducted thousands of Ukrainian children and transferred them to Russia or Russian-controlled areas since the invasion began.
Ukraine, international organizations and human rights advocates correctly note that these mass kidnappings are a war crime.
In our work in Ukraine over the years, we have seen firsthand how Russia has systematically targeted pillars of civilian life. One of us works extensively in Ukraine’s orphanages, and the other has worked on issues of religious liberty and the protection of faith communities.
Russia’s deliberate attacks on religious institutions and its violence toward Ukrainian children matter because they strike at the foundations of Ukrainian society.
The contrast with Ukraine’s own targeting decisions is difficult to ignore. Ukraine’s strikes have generally focused on military airfields, ammunition depots, naval facilities and economic assets that keep Russia in the war.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn observed that “violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence.”
The Soviet state routinely obscured uncomfortable realities behind carefully constructed narratives. Citizens were expected to repeat the government’s version of events even when these conflicted with what was plainly obvious.
Russia has adopted many of those techniques to perpetuate falsehoods about this war, especially the targets the Kremlin selects.
When Mr. Lavrov speaks of striking “decision-making centers,” he is engaging in the familiar Soviet propaganda tactic of covering violence with lies. Yet the growing problem for the Kremlin is the same problem that every propaganda system eventually encounters: reality.
Perhaps the brutality of how the war is unfolding helps explain why support for the war appears to be declining among many Russians. A recent Levada Center poll shows that 67% of Russians want peace talks with Ukraine.
Mr. Lavrov can claim that Russia is targeting decision-making centers, and sympathetic commentators and podcasters in the West can help amplify that message. What they cannot do, however, is override the mounting evidence that the Kremlin is executing a deliberate campaign targeting civilian life.
While Ukraine continues to extend its range and strike deeper into the infrastructure that enables Russia to wage war, Russia escalates its strikes at the heart of Ukrainian civilian life. Ukraine targets oil refineries, airfields and military assets. Russia damages churches, abducts children and attacks institutions central to Ukraine’s religious and cultural identity.
One side is striking at the war-making capacity. The other is striking at the foundations of a nation. That truth is becoming more difficult for the Kremlin to subjugate to its propaganda machine.
• Gary Marx is the host of “Peace & Power Ukraine” on Washington Signal. Shonda Werry is the president of Ukraine Orphan Outreach.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.