“
In the winter of 2025–2026, another grimace became the desire of the Russians to arrange a humanitarian catastrophe in our rear. The enemy is systematically terrorizing Ukrainian cities, in particular those far from the front.
The enemy is trying to leave millions of our fellow citizens without light, water and heat, making their lives unbearable. The demoralization of the civilian population is considered in Moscow as the main tool of pressure on Kyiv.
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In a word, the Russian aggression against Ukraine is increasingly clearly becoming a civil war.
A few years ago, the average citizen had much more opportunities to abstract from the hardships of war. At that time, the domestic air defense had already strengthened enough, the enemy had not yet had time to increase the production of attack drones, and the Russian energy terror was on pause.
In November 2023, publicist and military serviceman Pavlo Kazarin wrote:
“You know the first thing that catches your eye when you leave Europe after twenty months of living in a country at war? Nothing. There is no visual difference between the streets of Kyiv and Warsaw, Lviv and Prague. Yes, at first you will confuse civil aviation with the sound of a rocket flying. You will get used to the fact that there is no curfew in Europe. But in the rest of the world, the reality of Western cities is no different from the reality of many Ukrainian”.
This winter, it has become much more difficult to confuse Kyiv with Warsaw. The degree of involvement of the Ukrainian rear in military vicissitudes is growing inexorably.
And this forces us to remember two polar points of view on the suffering of our civilian population.
On the one hand, after February 24, 2022, it was repeatedly emphasized how difficult it is for all residents of Ukraine – even far from the front. Many broken destinies, constant stress, psychological exhaustion, deadly lottery of missile attacks, destruction of civil infrastructure, mass departure of women and children from the country, destroyed plans for the future… This narrative was addressed not only to domestic, but also to foreign audiences.
No matter how cynical it sounds, the suffering of civilians is in demand on the foreign information market. Residents of non-belligerent countries find it easier to associate themselves not with soldiers, but with civilians. It is easier to mentally put yourself in their place and empathize with them.
It is the civilians, unarmed and defenseless, are perceived as the main victims of any war.
Nothing demonstrates the brutality of the aggressor more vividly than strikes on rear cities; destruction of residential buildings, schools and hospitals; death of people hundreds of kilometers from the front line.
Unfortunately, the suffering of military personnel does not receive the same emotional response.
Even if real hell reigns on the front, and the number of dead soldiers far exceeds the losses among the civilian population, people in uniform are not so willing to empathize.
Unlike civilians, they are believed to be better adapted to the horrors of war. He said, this is the way of a warrior – to consciously renounce a peaceful life and sacrifice oneself. Although the vast majority of Ukrainian front-line soldiers are the same civilians as yesterday; and as mobilization intensifies, they rarely enter the army voluntarily.
One way or another, we had every reason to talk as much as possible about the troubles of the civilian population. What Ukraine has been doing for almost four years.
But at the same time, another, diametrically opposite narrative has spread in our society. About the fact that the war really affects only the front-line soldiers, and the inhabitants of the Ukrainian rear are infinitely far from the war and at all they don’t feel it.
Civilians live comfortably. Civilians do not think about the problems of the military. Civilians do not want to sacrifice their usual comfort, they sabotage the mobilization, they prevent the transition of Ukraine to military lines and thereby undermine the defense capability of their country.
“People sit in restaurants in Kyiv as if there is no war!” – congresswoman Victoria Spartz voiced this claim to Ukrainians as early as 2022. Even then, she had many supporters in Ukraine.
In the following years, it was argued that the daily life of civilians in the rear was almost unaffected by the hostilities. It was emphasized that the probability of becoming a victim of an enemy missile strike is less than the probability of dying in a car accident. And any complaints of civilians about fatigue from a protracted war were declared groundless whining.
The radical version of this narrative did not involve even minimal empathy for the civilian population. This shocked many last spring statement Andriy Batyukov, a military serviceman and ex-candidate for deputies from Eurosolidarity: “I never feel sorry for civilians. Every time a certain number of them die, I ask: how many of them have a father or mother, husband or wife serving?”.
Sometimes the competition between two polar narratives grew into a real Orwellian double-mindedness. One and the same domestic propagandist could at first reproach the civilians for detachment from the war and brand the lowly whiners; and the very next day – after another missile attack by the Russian Federation – to write about the ruthless terror of the enemy and the hardships of life in the Ukrainian rear. An obvious logical contradiction did not bother anyone.
So which of the two narratives is more fair and reasonable? Can it be considered that the Russian aggressor confirms one point of view and completely disavows another by his actions?
There is still no unequivocal answer to this question. Because everything in our world is relative – and everything is known in comparison.
The current troubles of civilians can be compared with the problems of front-line soldiers – and then it turns out that even without electricity and heating, life is much easier for a rear-guard citizen than for a fighter in a dugout. And you can compare the everyday life of the Ukrainian rear with the calm, safe and comfortable existence of modern Poles or Czechs – and the result will be completely different.
The problems of civilians in Ukraine in the 2020s can be compared to the life of warring countries during the Second World War, and it will turn out that our rear is alive and knows no harm: because it does not sell bread cards and does not do labor service at defense factories. And you can use pre-war Ukraine for comparison – and then the picture will be completely different.
In essence, the choice of reference point depends on your initial mood. Whether you are ready to sympathize with millions of your compatriots. If not, no amount of terror from Moscow will convince you that civilians really suffer from war. And if so, then you could have noticed a long time ago that the relative well-being of civilians in the Ukrainian rear is nothing more than a fragile and ephemeral illusion.
Mykhailo Dubynyanskyi
”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
In the winter of 2025–2026, the desire of Russia became another grimace n arrange a humanitarian catastrophe in our rear. The enemy is systematically terrorizing Ukrainian cities, in particular those far from the front.
The enemy is trying to leave millions of our fellow citizens without light, water and heat, making their lives unbearable. The demoralization of the civilian population is considered in Moscow as the main tool of pressure on Kyiv.
Advertising:
In a word, the Russian aggression against Ukraine is increasingly clearly becoming a civil war.
A few years ago, the average citizen had much more opportunities to abstract from the hardships of war. At that time, the domestic air defense had already strengthened enough, the enemy had not yet had time to increase the production of attack drones, and the Russian energy terror was on pause.
In November 2023, publicist and military serviceman Pavlo Kazarin wrote:
“You know the first thing that catches your eye when you leave Europe after twenty months of living in a country at war? Nothing. There is no visual difference between the streets of Kyiv and Warsaw, Lviv and Prague. Yes, at first you will confuse civil aviation with the sound of a rocket flying. You will get used to the fact that there is no curfew in Europe. But in the rest of the world, the reality of Western cities is no different from the reality of many Ukrainian”.
This winter, it has become much more difficult to confuse Kyiv with Warsaw. The degree of involvement of the Ukrainian rear in military vicissitudes is growing inexorably.
And this forces us to remember two polar points of view on the suffering of our civilian population.
On the one hand, after February 24, 2022, it was repeatedly emphasized how difficult it is for all residents of Ukraine – even far from the front. Many broken destinies, constant stress, psychological exhaustion, deadly lottery of missile attacks, destruction of civil infrastructure, mass departure of women and children from the country, destroyed plans for the future… This narrative was addressed not only to domestic, but also to foreign audiences.
No matter how cynical it sounds, the suffering of civilians is in demand on the foreign information market. Residents of non-belligerent countries find it easier to associate themselves not with soldiers, but with civilians. It is easier to mentally put yourself in their place and empathize with them.
It is the civilians, unarmed and defenseless, are perceived as the main victims of any war.
Nothing demonstrates the brutality of the aggressor more vividly than strikes on rear cities; destruction of residential buildings, schools and hospitals; death of people hundreds of kilometers from the front line.
Unfortunately, the suffering of military personnel does not receive the same emotional response.
Even if real hell reigns on the front, and the number of dead soldiers far exceeds the losses among the civilian population, people in uniform are not so willing to empathize.
Unlike civilians, they are believed to be better adapted to the horrors of war. He said, this is the way of a warrior – to consciously renounce a peaceful life and sacrifice oneself. Although the vast majority of Ukrainian front-line soldiers are the same civilians as yesterday; and as mobilization intensifies, they rarely enter the army voluntarily.
One way or another, we had every reason to talk as much as possible about the troubles of the civilian population. What Ukraine has been doing for almost four years.
But at the same time, another, diametrically opposite narrative has spread in our society. About the fact that the war really affects only the front-line soldiers, and the inhabitants of the Ukrainian rear are infinitely far from the war and at all they don’t feel it.
Civilians live comfortably. Civilians do not think about the problems of the military. Civilians do not want to sacrifice their usual comfort, they sabotage the mobilization, they prevent the transition of Ukraine to military lines and thereby undermine the defense capability of their country.
“People sit in restaurants in Kyiv as if there is no war!” – congresswoman Victoria Spartz voiced this claim to Ukrainians as early as 2022. Even then, she had many supporters in Ukraine.
In the following years, it was argued that the daily life of civilians in the rear was almost unaffected by the hostilities. It was emphasized that the probability of becoming a victim of an enemy missile strike is less than the probability of dying in a car accident. And any complaints of civilians about fatigue from a protracted war were declared groundless whining.
The radical version of this narrative did not involve even minimal empathy for the civilian population. This shocked many last spring statement Andriy Batyukov, a military serviceman and ex-candidate for deputies from Eurosolidarity: “I never feel sorry for civilians. Every time a certain number of them die, I ask: how many of them have a father or mother, husband or wife serving?”.
Sometimes the competition between two polar narratives grew into a real Orwellian double-mindedness. One and the same domestic propagandist could at first reproach the civilians for detachment from the war and brand the lowly whiners; and the very next day – after another missile attack by the Russian Federation – to write about the ruthless terror of the enemy and the hardships of life in the Ukrainian rear. An obvious logical contradiction did not bother anyone.
So which of the two narratives is more fair and reasonable? Can it be considered that the Russian aggressor confirms one point of view and completely disavows another by his actions?
There is still no unequivocal answer to this question. Because everything in our world is relative – and everything is known in comparison.
The current troubles of civilians can be compared with the problems of front-line soldiers – and then it turns out that even without electricity and heating, life is much easier for a rear-guard citizen than for a fighter in a dugout. And you can compare the everyday life of the Ukrainian rear with the calm, safe and comfortable existence of modern Poles or Czechs – and the result will be completely different.
The problems of civilians in Ukraine in the 2020s can be compared to the life of warring countries during the Second World War, and it will turn out that our rear is alive and knows no harm: because it does not sell bread cards and does not do labor service at defense factories. And you can use pre-war Ukraine for comparison – and then the picture will be completely different.
In essence, the choice of reference point depends on your initial mood. Whether you are ready to sympathize with millions of your compatriots. If not, no amount of terror from Moscow will convince you that civilians really suffer from war. And if so, then you could have noticed a long time ago that the relative well-being of civilians in the Ukrainian rear is nothing more than a fragile and ephemeral illusion.
Mykhailo Dubynyanskyi