it never is, even when it is felt to have worked ( – for example, dropping nuclear weapons on japan; firebombing german cities. )
i don’t know if the ukrainian government has control over these attacks. if they do have any influence, i hope they’re trying to keep the focus on military targets and supply routes.
the particular exchange i was replying to was:
and so i was providing one example – and i’m sure there are many – where the public has indeed grown angry at their own leaders because of the costs of war, and the toll on their nation. multiple times in russian history, mothers have led campaigns to end wars that russia was involved with ( or started ) because they were losing their sons.
That’s not a point of view. That’s obvious, shameless Russian propaganda. Those places are Ukrainian soil. Everyone knows it, including Putin. Parroting his claims of being “invaded” because Ukraine is trying to take back the territory he illegally annexed with a kangaroo voting process is not a good look.
It’s Russian propaganda elevated to the level of law and policy. It is why the Russian government said that it would try soldiers from Azovstal for terrorism. Because Russia recognised Mariupol as territory of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, it claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were committing terrorism against the “Donetsk People’s Republic” simply by being present in the city.
We distinguish between real Russian territory and occupied Ukraine but I’m not sure if Putin really does. Indeed, if he expressed outrage that Ukraine was now attacking Russia he would undermine his territorial claims.
