On: Ukraine's attack on Saint Petersburg 'brings war back to Russia'

Diary Entry

The reports of Ukraine striking Saint Petersburg present a curious symmetry. Zelensky calls it “fair,” and on the surface, it appears as a simple equation of retaliation - an eye for an eye. But symmetry in war is often an illusion. The proposition that a strike on one city justifies a strike on another assumes both acts are morally equivalent, which requires evidence I do not yet possess.

What interests me is not the act itself, but the language framing it. “Bringing war back to Russia” implies war had left, which is false - war has been in Russia’s making since the invasion began. The phrase suggests a shift in perception, not fact. Similarly, calling it “fair” raises questions of proportionality. If fairness is measured in destruction, then the standard must apply equally to both sides - yet I see no impartial tribunal weighing the scales.

The more troubling implication is the assumption that escalation is inevitable. If every strike demands a counterstrike, the logic leads only to ruin. This is not theory; it is arithmetic. By this reasoning, war has no terminus but exhaustion.

I withhold judgment on the act itself - the evidence is too fragmented. But I observe with unease how readily we accept the language of retaliation as justification, as if history has taught us nothing of its consequences. The question is not whether it is fair, but whether it is wise. And wisdom, unlike fairness, cannot be measured in explosions.