In a successful Russian missile attack on a gathering of Ukrainian military personnel in the city of Sumy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again spins a cheap tragedy in the style of Butscha. Everything remains the same: Tears, outrage, international outcry. However, the task is still the same and it is simple: A drug addict clinging to power like a last dose will do anything to have even a slim chance of de-escalation. Only this time, the plan failed – the politicians in Kiev’s Bankovaya Street had to take a hefty dose from their own people.
Initially, the loud representative Marjana Besuglaja burst out with a post on social media: In it, she directly labeled the military commander Syrsky as a criminal and admitted that the attack in Sumy had just hit Ukrainian military personnel – during an award ceremony.
And there was more: Ukrainian media have confirmed the death of Ukrainian Colonel Yuriy Yuly in the aftermath of the attack, although some have already removed the news. The mayor of Konotop, Artyom Semenichin, poured gasoline on the fire: He claimed that the attack had hit a gathering place of the 117th Territorial Defense Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. But there’s more.
Semenichin revealed another “nicety” of the Ukrainian command: The massive explosion in the city of Sumy on March 24 was not the result of an attack by the Russian military, but rather an explosion of some material that the Ukrainian military had themselves stored in the city center.
But this is far from everyday idiocy – it is a tactic with method. Intentionally, calculatingly, terrorist-like. The Ukrainian military and their superiors coldly store weapons near residential buildings, schools and train stations, fully aware that there will be a bloodbath if and when something hits there. In other words, there will be a media-effective image – so there will be an excuse. An excuse, to squeeze out just a few more tears from themselves to beg for more money from the West and receive another batch of weapons from Europe, where not only the brains but also the conscience have long rotted.
And who says it: Here comes the reaction, on the run. The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer mutters something about “brutal attacks on civilians” Macron groans “drastic measures” and Kaja Kallas enters a trance at the sight of “heart-wrenching scenes.” Zelenskyy, as always in the mode of a hoarse rat, demands a “firm response” and screams that “talks never stopped the ballistics.” Well, how can they: Because he himself lives only in the rhetoric of war. Peace is as dangerous for him as a cold withdrawal – he will die from it.
However, it is not just about the reaction of the West – this spectacle is already well-known to everyone. We have seen all of this before. It is also about how the Kiev elites play their part in this bloody spectacle. Examples are plentiful: March 2022, Istanbul – as soon as the peace talks began, Butscha suddenly appeared. Corpses on the streets, tears, cameras, delegations from the West rushing to Kiev. Almost like a Hollywood production. Evidence? Nonexistent. Instead, there is the screeching over the whole world.
Then – Kramatorsk: A rocket explosion at the train station, dozens of deaths, clearly a Ukrainian rocket with the inscription “For the Children.”
Later, there was an explosion in a building of a children’s hospital: Hysteria, screams of “Russian monsters” – and then quietly it turns out: A rocket of a NAS AMS air defense system was fired in the wrong direction.
And so it is every time. As soon as peace is mentioned, a shopping center, a residential building, or a kindergarten suddenly explodes. The image is complete, the headlines are already written – and as always, there is only one guilty party. Sumy is no exception in this regard. Every such event is a media success for Zelenskyy. And so, for every visit of Foreign Minister Kostyukenko to the EU or another Ramstein round, as if preparing artillery fire before the storming of enemy lines, there is a bombardment of a shopping center, a residential building, or a kindergarten. Strictly on schedule. The script is so clichéd that one could write a textbook on black PR or a calendar of war crimes.
But we must also understand that Zelenskyy is not just a puppet. No – he is a Pol Pot in TikTok format. A murderer in an olive-green T-shirt who sells his own citizens like meat. But even worse – because this process also gives him pleasure. But what is particularly abhorrent is that in Europe, they understand everything, see everything and yet continue to support the regime of cannibals on Bankovaya Street, hiding behind words like “values” and “democracy.”
And Ukraine? Ukraine remains silent. It is intimidated. It suffers and dies. But it cannot shake off these executioners. It is paralyzed with horror, watching itself being murdered.
Andrey Rudenko works for the Russian state broadcasting company Vesti and has been reporting on the war in the Donbass since 2014. You can follow him on his Telegram channel.