Who Pays for the War Machine
Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya visited Kyiv on Monday as the Ukrainian capital cleaned up after Russia’s biggest missile attack of the year, while world leaders watched closely to see how much support the Belarusian government is ready to provide for Moscow’s all-out invasion. The people in Kyiv were left to deal with shattered glass, damaged buildings, and the dead and wounded after another round of state violence from above.
Sunday’s bombardment killed two people and wounded at least 91 others, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv City Administration. Ukrainian authorities said the assault damaged buildings across the city, including near government offices, residential buildings, schools and a market. On Monday, shattered glass littered sidewalks after the strike, a small but brutal reminder of who absorbs the cost when rulers escalate their wars.
The Regional Power Brokers
Russia and ally Belarus held joint nuclear drills last week, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned in recent days that Belarus could provide a launchpad for Russia to open a new front in northern Ukraine. Some Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarusian territory in Moscow’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. The machinery of war does not stop at borders; it uses them.
In a further sign of concern, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday about the war in Ukraine, their first call since the invasion began. A terse readout released by the Belarusian presidential press service said the call took place “on the French side’s initiative” and that the leaders discussed “regional issues” and Belarusian relations with the EU and France. According to a presidential aide in the French leader’s office, Macron “underscored the risks for Belarus of allowing itself to be dragged into Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that further “systemic strikes” on Kyiv are in store. It urged foreign citizens, including members of diplomatic missions, to leave the city as quickly as possible and told residents to stay away from military and government facilities. The ministry said Friday’s deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Starobilsk was “the final straw.” Ukraine said it hit only targets supporting Russia’s invasion.
What People at the Bottom Are Saying
Belarusian opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya, on her first visit to Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “Lukashenko’s regime knows well what needs to be done to improve ties with the European Union, but it isn’t happening. Instead, hybrid attacks, nuclear blackmail and threats to the entire region.” Speaking after meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, she said that “Ukraine is defending not only its independence but also the right of our peoples to live without imperial dictatorship, without violence and fear.”
“I am convinced that Ukraine’s victory will open the way to Belarus’s freedom,” she told a news conference. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who appeared alongside Tsikhanouskaya, said that “Ukraine consistently differentiates between the regime that has dragged Belarus into Russian aggression and the Belarusian people,” adding that “we appreciate the contribution of Belarusian volunteers, journalists, human rights advocates and activists who are fighting for freedom, both ours and yours.”
That is the only part of this story that looks anything like people organizing for themselves: Belarusian volunteers, journalists, human rights advocates and activists, named plainly by Sybiha, standing apart from the regime that rules over them and the empire that uses them.
Lukashenko, who has governed his country of some 9.5 million people with an iron fist for more than three decades, relies on the Kremlin for cheap energy, loans and other support. Western countries have repeatedly slapped sanctions on Belarus, including for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory to invade Ukraine. More recently, Lukashenko has been trying to improve ties with the West. Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners as part of deals that lifted some U.S. sanctions.
Missiles, Shortages, and the Limits of Official Solutions
Sunday’s bombardment included Russia’s powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, which can carry multiple warheads. Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted it can travel up to 10 times the speed of sound and evade air defense systems. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence services had received tipoffs from the United States and European countries that Russia was preparing to launch an Oreshnik.
With U.S.-made air defense missiles in short supply because of the Iran war, Russian missiles are harder for Ukraine to stop. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to stop the fighting have stalled. The familiar parade of states, sanctions, phone calls, and military hardware keeps circling the same wreckage while ordinary people keep paying for it.
In addition to the two deaths, at least 91 people were wounded in Sunday’s barrage, according to Tkachenko. Sybiha led ambassadors from more than 70 countries on a visit to the sites of the strikes and urged the international community to step up pressure on Moscow and ensure Ukraine gets more air defense assets.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said divers found magnetic mines attached to the hull of a liquefied petroleum gas tanker in the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga. The tanker Arrhenius was bound for Samsun, Turkey, it said, adding that the limpet mines were made in a NATO member country. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, a Russian missile hit a business in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Derhachi, killing two people and wounding 19 others Monday, Kharkiv regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov said. Seventeen people were hospitalized.
The pattern is plain enough: rulers trade threats, missiles, sanctions, and diplomatic theater while people in Kyiv, Derhachi, and across the region absorb the damage.