Just another week of Russian killings in Ukraine
BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN
For all the clever pundits who predict Putin’s imminent fall almost every day, three things are worth remembering.
One, the Soviet Union was basically bankrupt by 1971. But it took another 20 years for the ‘prison of nations’ to finally fall apart.
Two, the Russian dictator may well have painted himself into a military corner, but that does not mean that he lacks a strategy capable of costing many Ukrainian lives and putting immense pressure on their will to fight on
In short, Russia’s strategy is to make Ukraine uninhabitable.
On 14 August, Russia’s Ministry of Defence posted a direct threat to Ukrainians: that as soon as winter starts, Russia will resume its bombing of Ukrainian energy infrastructure - gas, electricity and water. As we saw last winter.
“You’re in for a deep freeze this winter,” the Russian threat sounded.
Three, don’t expect the US president to increase the pressure on Russia to stop its invasion. Because Donald Trump remains optimistic that things are moving in the right direction. Thus, after a “good call” with Putin on the fourth of July - “I think we're getting much closer than people realise. And President Putin wants it (the war) to end. I will tell you that very strongly.”
(No, this is a real quote, the US president really said this.)
So, to recap, as Summer turns to Autumn: Ukrainians are looking at another freezing, threatening winter, with practically no Patriots interceptors to defend themselves, and an American president who believes that an end to the war is just around the corner.
During 2026, Russia has steadily intensified its ballistic missile strikes. By now - with Ukraine’s Patriot interceptors virtually exhausted - the Russian missiles are now getting through almost every time, devastating Ukrainian apartment blocks and lives.
All winter and spring, month by month, Russian missiles have killed more and more Ukrainian civilians, around 200 or more people per month, as Ukraine has been running out of Patriot interceptors.
With 437 civilians killed and 2,610 injured, July 2026 was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since May 2022, according to the UN.
From 2025 to 2026, Russia has more than doubled the number of ballistic missiles it fires at Ukraine. In an interview with CNN, president Zelensky said Ukraine currently has only one tenth of the interceptor missiles it urgently needs from the United States to stop the surging Russian ballistic missile attacks.
“This year we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025,” he said. “Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before.”
“Ukraine critically needs Patriot interceptors,” its leader warned in early July.
“We are fighting on our own. The casualties are exclusively Ukrainian. We simply need our partners to do what they agreed to do. We’re not even asking for more.”
So, the Ukrainian president was naturally delighted when Trump, at the NATO summit in Turkey on 8 July, pronounced that Ukraine would get permission and the technology needed to produce Patriot missiles itself.
“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That's pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving enough,” Trump said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I'm sure you will do everything to stop this war,” a smiling Zelensky told Trump.
But on 6 August - in his umpteenth policy reversal on Ukraine - ‘policy’ may be too sophisticated a word for it - Trump rather unceremoniously walked back his promise to Ukraine.
QUESTION: “Mr. President, on Ukraine, President Zelensky says his country desperately needs long-range missiles or those Patriot missile batteries. Is that something that you’re -”
TRUMP: “Well, I mean, we want missiles, too ….”
The US president then proceeded to repeat for the 100th time his false claim that “Biden gave (Zelensky) $300 billion worth of ammunition.”
(On a personal note: I am getting sick and tired of spending time and energy refuting Trump’s demonstrably false claims. But professional decency prevents me from simply letting this one pass. So here we go - again.)
By the end of the Biden administration, the Pentagon said it had committed $66.5 billion in total security assistance to Ukraine since Biden took office.
So, not $300 billion.
The obvious purpose of repeating this lie is to make Ukraine look irresponsible - or worse.
“If this problem (that Ukraine has almost no Patriot interceptors) isn’t solved by winter, Russian missile attacks could destroy Ukraine's power plants, shutting off heating for millions of Ukrainians and creating a humanitarian crisis,” an exhausted Zelensky retorted.
He is not exaggerating: at the end of last winter, many Ukrainians were nearing breaking point.
This week, several of my Ukrainian friends have told me about how they are already busy buying gas heaters, camping cookers and canned food - in anticipation of another winter of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, gas and electricity grids.
On 14 August, the Russian ministry of defence issued a stern threat to the Ukrainians:
“You’re in for a deep freeze this winter.”
In 2022, Putin tried to occupy Kyiv in three days. When that didn’t work and the Ukrainians forced the Russian army to withdraw, the Russians tried trench warfare instead.
When that failed to break Ukraine, Russia turned increasingly to systematic attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, apparently hoping to make civilian life unbearable - to freeze Ukrainians out of their own homes and eventually break their will to fight.
In January and February this year, I think it is fair to say, many Ukrainians came closer to giving up than they ever have been. Quite understandably.
And when the Russian bombing of gas, electricity and water supply still did not break the Ukrainians, Putin changed tactics to bombing apartment blocks at night. This has been going on all spring and summer.
In July 437 Ukrainian civilians died in that way. The highest since May 2022.
And now, the Russians are reminding Ukrainians of the horrors of last winter - and directly threatening a repeat.
This does not bode well.
Says Donald Trump. Again and again. “Putin wants peace.”
There is a frightening pattern here. A pattern that shows that Ukrainians should not for a minute trust the US president. The pattern is this:
Trump gets upset with Putin (for bombing a kindergarten or a hospital, with many Ukrainian dead - it looks bad for Donny as well).
Trump then publicly lets this irritation be known and threatens Russia with sanctions and possibly giving weapons to Ukraine.
Trump then - often after a well-timed and -placed phone call from the Russian dictator - falls down like a sweet, little lamb and concludes that “Putin wants peace.”
This pattern has repeated itself - each times in roughly a four month cycle - four times since Trump returned to the White House 18 months ago.
The rather undignified cycle even has its own name: TACO - Trump Always Chickens Out.
I have written about it repeatedly.
If Putin really wants the war to end - as the US president keeps insisting he does - but in real life keeps bombing Ukraine literally every night, it is probably safe to say that the Russian dictator is not planning a stable, long-term and just peace, but only a breathing space to regroup - and then return to finish the job.
I have yet to meet a Ukrainian who has not understood that long ago.
It is amazing that nobody in the Trump White House seems to understand this.
And that so few European leaders are willing to say this aloud - preferably to the face of the US president.
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