Why is Russia massively attacking civilian infrastructure and children?

The constant brutal attacks are intended to cause Ukrainians to feel hopeless and afraid for their future and the future of their children, as well as any other irrational and emotional reactions. Up to finding fault with themselves, their fellow citizens, the military, and the state. To weaken Ukrainian society, to lower the morale of the army (which cannot do anything about the terror in the rear), and to force the country's leadership to reconciliation on terms favorable to Putin.

They want our reaction to be numbness or escape. Either from reality or from the country. However, despite all of Russia's efforts, Ukrainian society is demonstrating extraordinary resilience. This is disrupting Moscow's plans and prolonging a conflict in which Russia cannot succeed by military means alone.

In addition to this strategy of destabilization, which should divide society and the army, the Kremlin is counting on the governments of Europe and America to pressure Ukraine to push for negotiations to freeze the conflict on terms favorable to Russia. Why should this work for Western governments? Putin is trying to prove that Russia is ready to go all the way, without stopping at any moral constraints.

The main reason why Russia resorts to mass attacks on civilians is its inability to achieve military victory on the battlefield. In the context of a prolonged war, the Kremlin is facing the exhaustion of its own reserves, which limits its ability to continue offensive operations.

Thus, their potential in Donbas will also be exhausted sooner or later. As a result, Moscow is forced to resort to terror tactics to achieve the desired result in a hybrid way. What logic do they rely on? On the logic of the Soviet KGB, from which Putin and almost all of his entourage come. And what school they follow.

So here it is. One of the pillars of the KGB's work was reflexive management. Reflexive control is a method of forcing the enemy to make decisions based on manipulating their perception, thinking, and choices. Reflexive control imposed actions by manipulating the data and conditions in which the KGB opponents operate. I don't think I need to explain that the Internet era has opened up a huge field of possibilities for this method of manipulation. 

The application is wide-ranging. Politics, war, diplomacy, and even economics. The KGB actively used reflexive management as a method of influencing the actions and decisions of its adversaries during the Cold War. The current Russian regime is not even a descendant of the USSR or the Russian Empire, it is a descendant of the KGB. 

They have been actively using it against Russian society, against Western society and politicians, and against Ukraine throughout the years of the Putin regime's existence. Because they can, they know how, they practice it. Reflexive governance has been and remains a key tool for the enemy to make “voluntary” mistakes that undermine their own strategy or provide an advantage for the KGB, FSB, or their states.

As part of this strategy, they will provoke us (Ukrainians - ed.) and our partners to emotional and unreasonable reactions, to destabilization and wrong decisions. Their task is to play this card as much as possible before the US elections.  To demoralize Ukraine as much as possible, to achieve all possible successes on the frontline, and to demonstrate their “invincibility” to the world. Thus, they are still counting on their candidate winning and Ukraine being forced to surrender against the backdrop of their successes and the aura of being “invincible.”

Our task and the task of the civilized world is to withstand this unprecedented bloody psychological pressure. The best possible response for us inside Ukraine is to work for victory and not to despair. The best possible response from our partners would be to give Ukraine more weapons and lift all the stupid restrictions to destroy Russia's military potential.

But no matter how long it takes for our partners to make the necessary decisions, our task is not to fall under this bloody psychological pressure. Not to lose our minds. No matter how difficult it may be.

Source

About the author. Yuriy Bohdanov, publicist, specialist in strategic communications in business, public administration and politics

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.