In recent months, Russia has dramatically expanded the bombardment of Ukraine, leading to a surge in civilian casualties. According to the latest United Nations data, at least 437 Ukrainian civilians were killed and 2,610 injured in July 2026, representing a 70 percent increase compared to the same period one year earlier.
Moscow has sought to frame this bombing campaign as “retaliation” for Ukrainian strikes inside Russia. Alarmingly, the Kremlin’s terminology has begun to creep into some international coverage of the war, with multiple prominent media outlets echoing the idea that Russia is “retaliating” rather than waging the largest European invasion since World War II. This false equivalence between the actions of Russia and Ukraine risks distorting perceptions of the war and obscuring Kyiv’s internationally recognized right to self-defense.
In reality, Russia has never needed an excuse to escalate its war of aggression. Moscow has been escalating from day one of the full-scale invasion, long before Ukraine developed the capacity to bring the war home to Russian soil. Since February 2022, Russian forces have destroyed entire Ukrainian cities and bombed countless residential buildings, hospitals, schools, energy facilities, shopping malls, and warehouses across the country. It is absurd and grotesque to suggest that these crimes are the result of some tit-for-tat conflict between two equally culpable adversaries.
