"Happy Palm Sunday, Ukrofascists"

Russia lives for this war so stop talking about it needing a ceasefire

Russia killed 31 people on a major religious holiday

It’s Palm Sunday.

And what does Russia, the self-assigned bastion of Orthodoxy, do on this day?

Kills civilians in broad daylight, naturally.

As of 1:40 PM, 31 people — this regrettably included my friend’s family friend —have been confirmed dead, including 2 children. A total of 84 people were injured, including 10 children. Russia struck the center of Sumy with two ballistic missiles.

Even if you’re not a Christian or Jew, you understand the significance of religious holidays like Passover and Palm Sunday, and believe it or not, it is precisely for this reason that Russia launched the missiles.

War is not a tragedy for the Russian mindset. On the contrary, it’s the state in which they rejoice and find purpose in their miserable lives. Because Russia is not just St. Petersburg, Moscow, or Kazan. It’s a huge piece of land where many people are destitute and have to shit outside because there’s no plumbing.

These people need to be given a purpose to exist, and war is a perfect means to do so. This is why when you see things like that happening, don’t be surprised that they do not only find support among ordinary Russians, like Elena Alaverda, but that they’re, in fact, praised to the extent that’s quite frankly impossible to grasp fully.

The good news, if there’s any in such a situation, is that the higly-Christian Trump administration did not take this move well, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Keith Kellogg, and even the highly Ukraine-skeptic Richard Grenell expressing their disgust with what happened, with Kellogg saying that it crosses “any line of decency”.

The other good news is that by performing such attacks, Russia shows with deeds, not words, that they have no intention whatsoever to stop the bloodshed. It’s not about Kherson, Zaporizhya, Donetsk or Luhansk Oblasts. It’s not what this war is about: this war is about the subjugation of Ukraine and its eradication.

The fact that it doesn’t go as fast as Putin and co. want it to means nothing in Russia’s world. On the contrary, it is a perfect way to mobilize society and tighten the grip on it to such an extent that it doesn’t challenge Putin’s regime ever. Before 2022, there were at least some big opposition names in the country; now, there’s no one left. Even Alexey Navalny is gone.

So here’s my genuine advice: stop buying pseudo-experts’ statements that Donald Trump is doing a favor to Putin by pushing for a ceasefire. He really is not. We all want this war to stop because it’s unsustainable and horrific.

But the person who doesn’t want it to stop is Russia and Putin, or as I put it in my interview with Trump’s former OSCE Ambassador James Gilmore when talking about Putin in fact not needing a potential ceasefire: What if he’s simply a killer deriving joy from this because the Russian society isn’t really responding to it? It’s not a democratic society; it’s not taking to the streets. Doesn’t a psychological factor also play a role here?”

Focus on relaying this message as much as you can so that it finally sinks in and we secure the actual outcome we’re yearning for: Ukraine’s complete victory.