There can be no victory without a game on the enemy's field
The recent events in our neighbouring country are curing my PTSD. Moscow City business centre, storage points in Sevastopol, SOS signals from a Russian warship – powerful strikes by our special services at Russia’s sore spots undermine faith in the invulnerability of the Russian regime among those who have not yet opened their eyes and felt a new reality.
We will definitely not win the war without bringing the war to Russian territory. Studying the experience of Germany in World War II, I see how cities were turned to ashes as a result of Allied bombing. Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Cologne and other cities that were hit by the so-called tornado of fire suffered catastrophic destruction and the murder of civilians.
Was there a military need for this? Probably not. Nevertheless, the command of the Allied forces decided to break the morale of the civilian population and strike at industrial facilities, for which purpose large-scale air strikes were carried out on cities with a population of more than 100,000 people.
Results of the bombing of Hamburg, 1943
In fact, in these summer days of 1943, the Royal Air Force of Great Britain carried out Operation Gomorrah, a series of bombings of Hamburg, aimed primarily at the civilian population. As a result of the operation, up to 45,000 people were killed and up to 125,000 were injured. Whole families were killed. The city's historical heritage was destroyed, and the scale of the destruction spread panic throughout Germany.
Hamburg, 1943. Civilian casualties
Therefore, the attacks carried out by the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine on the Russian ministries, warships and storage points are only the first swallows of future actions on Russia’s territory. Do we want this kind of massacre in Russia? Probably not. But without a large-scale counter-offensive operation, it will not be possible to take control of strategic facilities and put all those who launched the "special military operation" [as Russians call the war in Ukraine – ed.] on trial.
Meeting of the National Security Council of the Russian Federation, 21 February 2023
I will never forget the meeting of the National Security Council of the Russian Federation on the eve of the full-scale invasion. But I am personally thankful to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, for the frightened face I saw when I put my sleepy children in the car and drove them to Moldova the same night.
Along an empty road and all alone at the border checkpoint, persuading the officials to let us out without a full package of documents, I said to them: "Guys, the war is starting and I need to take my children out urgently, because I have a military reserve contract and I have to join the army in a few days."
The occupation of Kyiv Oblast, the constant expectation of an airborne assault in Zhuliany International Airport, Russian troops on the outskirts of the city – our future seemed so vague and unrealistic at the time that the current achievements of the Armed Forces and especially the Defence Intelligence seem like a fantasy. It's hard to predict how further events will unfold, but the political officer in me tells me to be optimistic.
The other day I read again about the intention to appoint Budanov as Minister of Defence. It's probably a good idea, but in this case, the Ministry of Defence will have to be renamed the Ministry of Offensive.
Iryna Sierhieieva
