Missiles in Ukraine: The Russian art of provocation | International

In a single day, Russia launched 90 missiles on Ukrainian territory. About 70 were intercepted before hitting the target. It was an unfortunate day of death and destruction, in which the Ukraine suffered the most dangerous bombardment of the entire war. It was due to the number of missiles launched, the highest in a single day since February 24, but above all due to the alarm unleashed by the fatal impact of two devices, apparently Russian-made, on Polish territory, that is, the geography protected by NATO and by the nuclear umbrella of the United States.

With the first news about these first two victims of the war in an Alliance country, two agricultural workers who work on a farm about six kilometers from the border with Ukraine, the film of an immediate military escalation in which the entire NATO involved in the war crossed the mind of any observer. If it had been a determined attack by the Kremlin to test the Alliance, there could be no doubt as to the answer. In the event that the allies did not react, NATO could declare its insolvency as a mutual defense treaty and Putin declare himself the political winner of the war. And if they reacted, all the partner countries, including Spain, entered into an open war with Russia and the nuclear threat loomed once again on European territory.

In Moscow and kyiv the reactions were quick, forceful, and both precipitated. According to the Kremlin it was a Ukrainian provocation and according to Zelensky, a Russian attack on NATO territory that deserved a response. Much more prudent were the reactions of all the allies, in the capitals and especially at the G-20 meeting in Bali, where they were able to exchange their reflections directly. The missiles may have been Russian-made, as Russian are many of the weapons used in this war and Russian is even the training of many Ukrainian military. They may also have been launched by the Ukrainian army in the interception of the barrage of Russian missiles.

Even so, it is impossible to deny Putin’s responsibility. It is a war crime that hydroelectric infrastructures and houses are military targets. Its systematic destruction is a form of blackmail, literally terrorist, to win by putting pressure on civilians who lack the strength to win on the battlefield. Launching missiles over the entire Ukrainian territory, as has already happened several times, is tempting fate and leaving the door open to an accident or a mistake that leads to an escalation of warfare. As Pedro Sánchez has recalled, if it happens on the same day that Putin was summoned to Bali to meet with the leaders of the G-20, it is a bet on the war of aggression against the efforts for peace and stability that the international community and a confirmation of the irremediable danger of Putin’s Russia.

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