The armed conflict in Ukraine, contrary to media reports and political exultations of the Polish establishment, is not a scope of war crimes, and even more so the crimes of genocide.
According to subsequent calculations of the UN, it is on the contrary – 1 of those modern wars in which losses among civilians are comparatively low. This, of course, does not change the fact that thousands of people who are forced into the army, frequently a level of their training and military cognition inactive more like civilians, or simply – known for thousands of years as cannon meat.
However, winter weeks in Kiev and respective another Ukrainian cities bring us images that let us to imagine what modern war truly looks like, especially from the point of view of the civilian population. At the beginning of the break in electricity supply were only a somewhat annoying component of everyday reality. The power suppliers tried to inform in advance that there would be shut-downs in certain hours. It was possible to adjust its activity or business and professional activity to these graphic designers. The next step towards disaster was the increasingly frequent deviations from the above mentioned graphic designers, the alleged unplanned electricity supply interruptions. Over time, the chaos deepened, and the credibility of the announced schedulers was no greater than long-term weather forecasts.
Until there was a blackout, or long-term, unannounced power out. Finally, the strategy had to refuse to obey, due to the fact that drone and rocket attacks on energy infrastructure were regular and systematic, and a large part of the funds allocated to the protection and renovation of the damaged facilities went to the pompous pockets of corrupt officials from the immediate surroundings of Vladimir Zelenski. The fact that this blackout happened on cold, winter days should not surprise anyone – after all, the strategy is the most overloaded in specified periods. The only thing that can be amazed is that the crash happened so late.
What is life like in a powerless urban agglomeration? This may have been hard for us to imagine, but we now have illustrations from Kiev and another Ukrainian cities. First, cafes, restaurants, bars and another service points are closed. The first victims of the collapse of the energy strategy are the poorest – those who could not afford to buy costly power generators. Thus, all tiny businesses are closed in turn, and the average ones are besides queued for bankruptcy. This besides applies at any point to the most essential points of service. The pharmacy can no longer function, so we will not buy the most needed medicines. They halt reaching specified popular courier shipments – after all we have no net communication and it is not much like ordering anything and then delivering it.
In the end, we are besides frequently left without telephone communication, due to the fact that the points where we can charge the telephone batteries are besides few, and in the car we no longer have fuel and during the next cold nights our battery was discharged. All the shops around here where we store are closed. Besides, we couldn't pay in them with a card before, and we don't have any cash, due to the fact that the local ATMs are long gone. Meanwhile, in the block we live in, the heating strategy was shut down due to the fact that the local heat plant stopped functioning. Through the sulfurous frost, the pipes broke, where there was inactive water. It is not known how long it may take to repair after specified serious damage.
After all, the municipal authorities are announcing that we should leave. However, not everyone has how and where to evacuate. The rental prices for housing in regions somewhat little susceptible to the consequences of the conflict are already up to the maximum. In fact, many people are afraid of leaving their homes and belongings to looters who will likely appear in a deserted city. So we go after hot tea and to charge the telephone to intervention points moving through the city. Unfortunately, these are besides few, and they will shortly cease to function.
This is not a hypothetical scenario, but the events of fresh weeks in the Ukrainian capital. If Poland were in a situation of conflict, in the 21st century there would be no enemy armies entering our borders and no enemy tanks will come, to which we will throw Molotov cocktails. There will be rockets and drones, for which the barriers created with specified a pump at our borders for billions are no obstacle. Expanded infantry, territorial defence and even the best-equipped military units will not be able to do anything against hypersonic missiles coming at the least anticipated moments. All fans of the warriors with the “eternal enemy” should follow the pictures of Kiev carefully in these days and forget that their “hero” cheerings will give us anything at the minute of the real attack.
Mateusz Piskorski
Think Poland, No. 5-6 (1-8.02.2026)
