More than four years into President Vladimir Putin’s war to seize Ukrainian territory and deal blows to its people, Moscow is targeting airstrikes on civilians in Ukrainian cities. The Russian government’s goal is to try to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses and inflict deadly destruction on residential areas to punish and demoralize the country’s civilian population.
However, far from intimidating the Ukrainian people, these attacks have only aroused a greater spirit of national pride and resistance. Working men and women, in and out of uniform, are the backbone of fighting and production to defend their country’s sovereignty. They refuse to surrender their land, identity or future to Putin’s attempt to reimpose Moscow’s domination.
In stark contrast, Ukraine’s increasingly effective drone attacks are defensive. They target Moscow’s war-making capacities, not just near the front lines but increasingly far inside Russia itself. Airbases and warplanes, ammunition depots, fuel storage and other war-related infrastructure have been hit, not civilians.
These are two very different wars.
Moscow unleashed its deadliest attack so far this year on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities April 16, with drone and missile strikes killing at least 18 people, including a 12-year-old boy, and injuring more than 100.
During the past winter Moscow launched its heaviest aerial bombardment of the war, with Russian drones and missiles destroying or damaging half of Ukraine’s electrical grid. Millions were left without heat and electricity in freezing conditions. But more than 14,000 energy workers, many volunteers from around the country, restored much of that.
Ukrainian forces, despite being outnumbered and outgunned, are more than holding their own on the front lines. They are now clawing back ground in key areas in Donbas.
Seeking to reset relations with Moscow, the Donald Trump administration has pulled back on aid and military supplies to Ukraine. This has meant supplies of Patriot and other air-defense missiles, crucial to protection from Moscow’s onslaught, have been sharply cut back.
In response to these challenges, Ukrainian combatants have organized to develop and produce unmanned robots and drones as a cheap and effective answer. This has been reported worldwide. As of March, Ukraine’s home-built drones downed 70% of all Russian attack drones aimed at Kyiv.
Unlike the Kremlin’s brutal treatment of Russian workers in uniform as cannon fodder, Ukrainian forces organize to reduce casualties. Kyiv has developed ground robots, which, unlike aerial drones, can carry heavier supplies and evacuate the wounded, lessening the risks to its troops.
Moscow jails anti-war activists
As the war’s toll on Russian working people, in and out of uniform, grows, the Putin regime fears an upsurge of opposition. It is tightening its repressive grip and looking for new ways to press workers into its army.
Six former members of youth organization Vesna, which staged anti-war rallies in cities across Russia after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, were sentenced to draconian prison terms April 8 in St. Petersburg. They were pronounced guilty of “extremism,” spreading “false information” about the Russian military and inciting “social unrest.”
The six activists, one woman and five men, had been detained since their arrests in June 2023. They were sentenced to between six and 12 years in prison. They are recognized by Memorial, the long-standing Russian rights group whose offices were closed down by Putin, as political prisoners. At least 15 other alleged Vesna members who were charged have left the country, but remain on police “wanted” lists.