Aug. 24 marked six months since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine. It was also Ukraine’s Independence Day. Yet instead of celebrating, Kyiv canceled all holiday observances across the country as major cities braced for vicious Russian missile attacks.
“We have to be aware that this week, Russia may try to do something particularly cruel,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned last weekend.
Vladimir Putin could use the excuse of the car bomb that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, as a pretense to strike Kyiv. Russia claims Ukraine carried out the bombing, which Zelenskyy’s government denies. Given the long history of Kremlin political assassinations, the murder is far more likely a Russian “false flag” operation to justify more violence against Ukraine or even the work of anti-Putin Russian partisans.
