Putin has told many lies about the war against Ukraine. But the most terrible thing is that murder is called a feat, aggression - defense, destruction - liberation. By Tatyana Felgehauer.
1419 days. That's how long Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine has been going on. This is longer than the Great Patriotic War. The Russian president uses the memory of it as one of the main ideologues of the current Russian regime, although it was during his rule that May 9th turned into a terrible mixture of carnival and holiday of the dead. The Kremlin's attempts to use constant comparisons with that war seem especially cynical, considering the hypocrisy with which Putin is waging the current one. He is trying to convince the public that black is white and war is peace.
Not defense, but attack
Putin's lie began from the very beginning. Russia was not hit. No one invaded its territory, bombed its cities, threatened its existence. The war began with the crossing of borders, with missiles against Ukrainian cities, with Russian tanks aimed at the interior of a foreign country. This does not at all resemble the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
But Putin needs lies to deflect the main question - why did all this start in the first place. Because if it is recognized that this is an attack, responsibility will also have to be recognized - for the dead, for the destroyed cities, for the ruined lives.
Not denazification, but the instillation of totalitarianism
The second key replacement in this war is "denazification". Putin constantly talks about anti-fascism, about the fight against some "Nazis", while relying on practices from which anti-fascism was once supposed to protect people: the cult of the leader, repression, the destruction of dissent, the militarization of children, the language of hate, and the dehumanization of an entire people.
When the state declares "Nazis" all those who disagree with its war, this is not a fight against ideology - this is a way of legalizing violence. Since with "fascists" or "Nazis", as is known, can be done in any way.
Not liberation, but destruction
The word "liberation" sounds especially cynical if you look at its results. "Liberation" Ukrainian cities "liberated" by the Russian army are ruins. "Liberated" people are refugees, killed civilians, deported children, hostages, mass burials.
Liberation assumes that after it things get better. That people want to stay and life goes on. If after "liberation" only scorched earth remains, this is not liberation, but occupation, regardless of what it is called in official reports. It is enough to look at what is happening in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, where the situation is under the control of the Russian military. The notorious "Russian world" is presented there with the lack of water, electricity, the growth of crime and terrible corruption. This is what the liberation that Putin brings looks like.
Not a feat, but mass murder
Another lie is the talk about the "feat of the people". It starts every time the counting of corpses needs to stop. In Russia, they call death a feat so as not to raise the question of why and by whose decision people die.
The heroization of war in this respect works like opium. Hundreds of thousands of dead are turned into an abstract victim, and concrete responsibility is blurred in solemn speeches. The recent comparison of the military with Christ, made by Putin, already adds notes of madness. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense is trying not to name the figures for the losses of the Russian army, although the most conservative independent calculations indicate that the dead are over 150,000.
Not history, but imperialism
Putin's talks about "historical lands" and about the "Russian world" are naturally not about memory and the past - they are about the right of the stronger. About the refusal to recognize that the neighboring country is not a territory, but a subject. The imperial logic is always the same: if we consider something ours, then we can take it.
In general, this war has long been waged not "for" something, but "against". Moreover, against everyone! First of all, against Ukraine, its people, language and the very right to exist. Secondly - against their own citizens, deprived of the right to know the truth and choose their future, who are corrupted with money and used as cannon fodder. Against the very meaning of the words, which no longer describe reality, but mask violence and war crimes.
The most terrible thing about this war is not even the rhetoric. It's that murder is called a feat, aggression - defense, destruction - liberation. The longer this continues, the more people will be forced to live in a world in which language has ceased to be a means of understanding reality - and has become another weapon. Vladimir Putin's weapon.