As this article says, Zelenskyy has said this on Twitter:
We are entirely justified in our responses against Russia’s oil industry, military production, and those directly responsible for committing war crimes against Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Do you agree with him?
Yes. Very justified. They’re also justified to do a whole lot more.
What? Yes, of course they are. what a fucking question.
Yes, they were already justified 4 years ago.
More like 12 years ago.
yes and I would also justify sabotaging the infrastructure from which the EU buys fuel from Russia, even if such things directly affect me.
Oh yeah… If I were Ukraine, I’d fail a lot… but only because I’d be busy testing all the different ways I can stress their logistics. My goal would be to cause complete havoc for the Russians, including public outcry. Russia, why can’t you feed anybody? Russia, why can you power your homes? Russia, you’d best look down rather than over at me… your public base is rallying against you
I’d destroy communications, I’d find ways to make the Russians not trust one another — fear of spies. I’d poison food meant for troops, if I could, so that they can’t even trust their own meals.
I’d have some of the best deals for defects. Turn on Russia, you can leave the war immediately. We’ll even report that we killed you, help you go back to Russia under an alias, or even help you get your family out of Russia. Can be built from a task force of defects, literally just helping other defects.
I’d also start attacking Truth itself within Russia. In essence, let’s see what all this hype has been about — using AI fueled propaganda at scale. Nobody will know what the state of affairs are, because every truth will drown in the sea of plausibility. Russia will struggle to control the narrative, and they will have many more problems on their hands.
I’d also start a division that targets the oligarchy. Either recruit them, exploit them, or make them fear for their lives/money.
The last thing I would do is try and make this a fair fight. Fuck traditional warfare.
Do you not?
I absolutely agree with Zelenskyy that Ukraine is justified in hitting Russian oil infrastructure and military infrastructure, until the Russian military withdraws entirely from Ukraine.
Unfortunately though there are tankies on Lemmy who believe that every single Ukrainian is an evil Nazi who deserves to be murdered by the benevolent Russian regime. That’s why I asked “do you agree”.
Gotcha :)
I do mostly agree with him, but the answer is more difficult than a simple yes or no.
In this article from 2022, back when Russia was only attacking Ukraine, the question was posed the other way around. When is a target military and when is it civilian? And when is a civilian target a legitimate target?
A power station is (most often) civilian infrastructure, but can become a legitimate target to directly reduce military capabilities when the military draws power from that station. Military production facilities are also legitimate targets, as are oil facilities that provide fuel to the army.
But an oil terminal used for export is civilian infrastructure that does not directly benefit the army, but rather indirectly through a series of steps.
- It exports the oil or LNG,
- which generates income for companies,
- that may directly or indirectly generate funds for the government.
- The government can then move the funds to the military,
- that can then use it to buy more weapons,
- with which they can attack Ukraine.
If it was Russia attacking an oil terminal in Ukraine (or US / Israel in Iran, or Iran in UAE or SA for that matter) I would say these attacks were not justified and were actually war crimes. And I would be backed by international law, because the civilian repercussions would have been greater than the military ones. A country at war will just reallocate their budget, so the military will still buy their weapons.
But since it is a country that is defending itself against an aggressor that has been targeting civilian areas for years now, these attacks on civilian infrastructure in Russia will actually help diminish civilian deaths (on the Ukrainian side).
So, with that being said, they are justified imo, but some targets moreso than others.
Maybe if Russia would just STOP then Ukraine would not feel the need to destroy them.
Here’s a better question: If Russia stops NOW is Ukraine justified in continuing agressions?
Follow up question: For how long?
Until they’ve thrown out the invaders.
Russia isn’t going to stop now. We have other things to ponder other than your fantasy question.
Make them a burning refinery masquerading as a country.
