The Kyiv Children’s Hospital Attack
More Evidence for Why NATO Must Change its Strategy for Ukraine
This was one of the most barbaric and demonstratively deliberate gestures of Russia's war on Ukraine. Russia & Vladimir Putin are not interested in any "peace," "the end of the conflict," or a "compromise." They are interested in Ukraine's unconditional surrender enforced via unlimited civilian terror.
Illia Ponomarenko, 9 July 2024
In the past 24 hours we have seen again the brutality of the Putin regime, and the murderous band of barbarians called the Russian military. The deliberate attack by a Russian precision missile on the Okhmatdyt hospital, despite its horror, is part of a wider Russian campaign to terrorise the people of Ukraine.
This was not the actions of a few bad apples. It is the outcome of a systemic, command-led campaign to terrorise and brutalise Ukrainians, just as the Russians did with Syrians and Chechens. Russian political and military leaders have nurtured a culture of indiscriminate killing in Ukraine and set the conditions for it to flourish. They bear full responsibility for the killings at Okhmatdyt hospital, Bucha and other atrocities across Ukraine in the past two and half years.
Throughout this war, prompted by the awful conduct of Russian forces, I have continued to ponder the notion of good and evil, and the idea of ‘just wars’. Just War Theory seeks to provide a guide for how nations might act in the right way both in deciding to go to war and in the conduct of war. As Cian O’Driscoll writes in his superb book, Victory, “the idea of just war rests on the dual aim that war may sometimes be justified and that it is possible to discern between just and unjust uses of force.”
Given the behaviour of Russian leaders in the last couple of years, they clearly do not believe in the underlying philosophies of Just War Theory.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe has released several reports that examine Russian atrocities in Ukraine. These makes for grim reading and this particular report from the OSCE delivered in April last year details a massive number of horrific acts that are attributed to the Russian Army and its proxies in Ukraine. The report notes that “some of the most serious violations encompass targeted killing of civilians, including journalists, human rights defenders, or local mayors; unlawful detentions, abductions and enforced disappearances of the same categories of persons; large-scale deportations of Ukrainian civilians to Russia; various forms of mistreatment, including torture, inflicted on detained civilians and prisoners of war.”
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office is also currently investigating over 120,000 alleged war crimes by Russians since the beginning of the large scale invasion in February 2022. Each of these allegations by themselves and in their totality is indicative of institutional failures in the Russian government and military forces. They also indicate a systemic approach to the brutalisation of the Ukrainian people, and a callous disregard for international law and the laws of war. There are good reasons why Putin, Shoigu and Gerasimov all now have standing arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.
As someone who spent decades honing my professionalism in the Australian Army, Russian behaviour throughout the war demonstrates that it is a professionally corrupt and morally hollow military institution. It is also indicative of a Russian regime that is not scared of the speeches by western politicians. Indeed, Western inaction in the face of Russian atrocities ensures they will continue.
This latest act by the Russians at the Kyiv children’s hospital provides yet another layer of evidence about the mindset of Putin and his determination to erase the culture, and indeed the very existence, of Ukraine. And it should provide further impetus for rethinking Western strategy about the war and a rapid elevation in the level of western support to help Ukraine defeat Russia.
So, what does this mean?
The most important priority at the moment is that the West needs to change its ideas about the kind of war it is supporting in Ukraine. Too many nations, with the exception of the Baltics and Poland, act like they are undertaking a large-scale goodwill gesture for a distant, eastern European nation. While there has been a degree of generosity from many countries, the level of diplomatic, military and financial support is barely meeting the rhetoric of ‘defending Ukraine for as long as it takes.’ That strategy is failing.
Trickle feeding support to Ukraine, as has been the case for the last 28 months, is not stopping the war. Importantly, it is not scaring Putin into stopping his aggression against Ukraine nor deterring his threats against other nations. Indeed, it is having the opposite impact. Putin sees that he can arbitrarily attack hospitals and shopping centres, torture POWs, rape and loot in occupied territories and conduct sabotage operations throughout Europe, with the West almost doing nothing in response.
If we do not change course, embrace a strategy of defeating Russia in Ukraine and resourcing this effort accordingly, Russia will continue its almost endless stream of atrocities against Ukrainians. And eventually it will turn its eye upon other nations in Europe as well.
To resource this strategy, Ukraine needs enhanced air and missile defences to protect their people (Biden’s announcement today on this is very welcome). They need more armoured vehicles, trucks, medical supplies, munitions, UAVs, training, support combating Russian misinformation and EW. In essence, Ukraine needs more of just about every kind of military equipment and munitions, as well as reconstruction, financial, humanitarian and de-mining assistance. And, they don’t need restrictions on where to use their weapons.
It will be expensive for all of us (Australia also needs to step up and act like the G20 member it is). But the cost of helping Ukraine throw the Russians out of their territory will be cheaper than persisting with our current strategy. It will be much, much cheaper than the inevitable follow-on wars that Putin and Xi will launch if Putin believes he has succeeded in Ukraine.
Finally, the West must stand by any commitment to support Ukraine in beating Russia. The U.S. Congressional debate about Ukraine assistance profoundly hurt the Ukrainians, impacted on trust between the U.S. and its allies, and gave heart for Putin, Xi and other authoritarians. It was indicative of a polity that not only had doubts about Ukraine but had doubts about itself. This demonstrated lack of commitment, and lack of confidence in our own systems, is being exploited by China and Russia through their misinformation, coercion and cyber operations.
The war in Ukraine provides the West with the clearest example in the modern era of a war of good versus evil. The brutal atrocities of the Russian military throughout their Ukraine campaign must act as a clarion call for countries that believe in the rights of individuals and in preserving democratic systems.
There is a strategic imperative and a moral obligation to assist Ukraine to win this war as rapidly as possible. The deliberate Russian attack, using precision missiles against the children at the Okhmatdyt hospital, provides us with more evidence for why this is so. Let’s hope that those attending the NATO summit decide that a shift in strategy for the war is necessary.
I completely agree with every word you have written in this post. As a retired US Army Colonel I have been appalled but not surprised by the conduct of the russian criminal regime and armed forces during this entire war, going back to 2014 and before. I have also been profoundly disappointed in the lack of forthright public condemnation of the same from US civilian policy makers and the US Armed Services. We have the means but seemingly not the will to do what we must, and what is right, to bring this war to a successful conclusion for Ukraine and the entire free world. It is not often the case where an opportunity presents to deal with a hostile alliance sequentially rather than collectively and we have that opportunity now. It is fleeting, and failing to act will condemn the present generation to a far more costly war, in life and treasure, that anything that might result from robustly acting to ensure a Ukrainian victory and the complete collapse of putin and his criminal regime. The tribunal necessary to bring justice to the criminals will eclipse in scale those held at the end of World War II. Thank you.
It is a moral outrage that there hasn't been moral outrage from Day 1.
As soon as the fantasy that Putin would go nuclear passed Ukraine should've received support like Nixon gave Israel in 1973, namely empty NATO stockpiles and send the arms to Ukraine.
A moral failure on so many levels going back to Obama and fanned by the isolationists.