In the grim calculus of modern war, truth often dies long before the first missile lands. But in Russia’s war against Ukraine, it is not truth alone that is under fire, it is the very notion of moral distinction between aggression and self-defense.

Since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, Russia has unleashed an unrelenting campaign of destruction aimed not only at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure but at its cities, its schools, its hospitals, and its children. Missiles and drones rain down on apartment buildings and energy stations with the cruel predictability of a doctrine that views civilian suffering as a tool of conquest.

And yet, in a theater of staggering hypocrisy, the Kremlin continues to cast itself as the aggrieved party. When Ukraine, against overwhelming odds, responds with targeted, surgical strikes on legitimate military assets deep within Russian territory (like in the now-famous Operation Spiderweb) Moscow calls it “terrorism.” A regime that has bombed maternity wards without flinching dares to lecture the world on the laws of war.

The Russian narrative is deliberately constructed to invert reality, to confuse the uninformed, and to whitewash acts of violence against civilians as acts of national defense.

Let’s be brutally honest. Russia doesn’t bomb civilians by mistake. It’s not “collateral damage.” It’s an official policy.

We’ve seen this before, in Grozny, in Aleppo, and now in Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa. The goal is terror. Pure and simple. It’s about exhausting people, not just militaries. Starve the cities, freeze the elderly, keep parents up all night wondering if this is the night a missile turns their building to dust.

Ukraine, for its part, has fought back with remarkable restraint, focusing its limited capabilities on degrading the machinery of war: airfields, fuel depots, radar stations, while avoiding the civilian toll that Russia now casually inflicts as a matter of routine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is rewriting the rules of retaliation. No carpet bombing of cities. No rain of terror. Instead: Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine’s June 1 drone strike that hit five Russian bomber bases, taking out or damaging dozens of bombers, with zero civilian casualties.

This was a surgical strike on planes, not homes or hospitals. Ukraine concealed drones in shipping containers inside Russia, launched when the moment was right, and blew up military targets from Irkutsk to Murmansk, while keeping civilians out of harm’s way. That is what restraint-guided warfare looks like.

After Spiderweb, Russian state TV reportedly said it was a “terrorist attack” and demanded an international tribunal. Russian shills online labelled it a ‘war crime’ and were genuinely confused why the international community is not reacting accordingly. Delusion, astonishing lack of self-awareness, and narcissist manipulation tactics are an integral component of Russian foreign policy.

Officials threatened “punishment,” while scrambling military forces and sending even more drones at Ukrainian cities.

So this happened: Russia strikes Kyiv again, killing civilians, then paints Ukraine as the aggressor trying to “terrorize” Russia. The doublespeak is dizzying: massacre a maternity hospital, then call the other side terrorists for hitting your tools for massacre.

Furthermore, after Ukraine toasted a third of Russia’s bomber fleet, many Russian and even US officials stated Ukraine should now expect ‘retaliation’, meaning…Russia will continue doing what it has been perpetrating for over 11 years: slaughtering civilians, just with less tools in its arsenal now.

To conclude: for a country with one of the world’s largest militaries and a nuclear arsenal that could turn the planet to ash, Russia sure spends a lot of time playing the victim.

It’s almost impressive how a regime that’s invaded its neighbors, poisoned dissidents, downed civilian planes, and turned cities to rubble still manages to claim it’s under siege. And somehow, a few Ukrainian drones hitting airfields send the Kremlin into an emotional tailspin.

This is the essence of modern Russian propaganda: victimhood as strategy. If Moscow can’t win sympathy through diplomacy, it demands it through theatrical outrage. It paints every Ukrainian counterstrike, no matter how precise, no matter how restrained, as “terrorism.” Meanwhile, its own missile barrages on apartment blocks are rebranded as “defensive operations.”

It's a masterclass in gaslighting.

Russia wants to bomb your city and still get invited to cocktail parties. It wants to launch hundreds of missiles at power stations and maternity hospitals, then cry foul when one Ukrainian drone hits a weapons depot.

Let’s not be fooled by tantrums and theatre.