Welcome to the War Russia

Ukraine launches largest attack yet on Russian city

Courtesy of NYTimes

24 Russian citizens, in the final hours of 2023, a time when most Russian citizens are racing to and fro as they prepare holiday tables to meet the New Year and pick up one last gift before their esteemed president’s toast, we’re denied their right to another of life. Some of these deceased may have been against the war, others for it, but their opinions no longer count because they are dead.

Death, however, does not mean that their lives were made moot. The sorrow their families now feel, a sorrow Ukrainians have been suffering for the past two years thanks to Russia’s war of genocide, thanks to Russian silence, can be redirected and serve as a wake-up call. The fight against the fascist regime that holds their country and culture hostage can — and should begin — now.

The Russian authorities said on Saturday that a Ukrainian attack on the city of Belgorod had killed at least 22 people (today, Russian media is reporting 24) and injured nearly 110 others, in what would be the deadliest single assault against a Russian city since the start of the war nearly two years ago.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that Ukraine had hit Belgorod — a regional center of around 330,000 residents about 25 miles north of the Ukrainian border — with two missiles and several rockets, adding that the strike was “indiscriminate (Ukrainian Missile Attack on a Russian City).”

Most Russians are in shock by the assault. Comments on some news sites express disgust that the Ukrainians would attack Russia on a non-political day when all the people of the former Soviet republics come together to ring in the new year — “How dare they attack us on the day before New Year’s.”

What these clueless Russians don’t know is that the day before, Russia fired 180 missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities all over the country. A maternity ward was destroyed, schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, and at least 18 Ukrainians were murdered. The deaths in Belgorod, while tragic, are just another day in the war that Vladimir Putin started for no other reason than to enrich himself further — and because he was likely feeling bored after having been in hiding for two years during COVID. 

At tables all over the city of Belgorod tonight and in thousands of houses all over Russia, seats will be empty, and tears will be shed for lost loved ones. Russians somehow think that only they are suffering in this war, but with each death, the stinging feelings caused by the sorrow Ukrainians know sadly so well creep closer. Settling into the drapes and clinging to the couches and other belongings of the deceased family member is silence. Deafening silence. 

How many families in Russia and Ukraine will this evening recall the New Year’s celebrations of just two years ago, in 2021 to 2022, when there was mostly peace between the two countries? How many celebrations tonight in these two countries will end in tears and heavy, staggering drunkenness?

At 11:57 or so, Putin will make his annual address to the nation. He will lie shamelessly. He will discuss how difficult this battle has been for Russia’s soul. He will play on fear and manipulate the feelings of loss to sell more lies. The man with no soul and no love for anyone or anything will tell Russians what they know already so well: Sorrow and struggle will define the new year for us. 

Sorrow and struggle that he gifted to the world — the dark prince of Russia. 

As the camera pulls away from his puffy, revolting face, the clock tower over the Kremlin appears. The bonging signifying the new year, 2024, will be heard by the European part of Russia, and at this moment, the vast majority of Russians raise their glasses and let forth a “Happy New Year,” and some will even shout, “Hail Russia.” 

There is hope, however, that the clinging of glasses after Putin’s fantastical fairy tale will not be as loud as in previous years. There is even hope that in some homes, the televisions will be switched off, and the New Year will be met with robust silence in a protest to the fascist dictatorship destroying Russia.

Fill the glasses, raise them high, and let’s all hope that this is the year we say goodbye to Vladimir Putin thus ending Russia’s fascist nightmare.