Skip to footer
Honesty
The Monitor's View

A key weapon in Ukraine’s blitz

Russia’s big retreat in eastern Ukraine was caused by more than military weapons from the West. Ukrainians were aided by an openness to the truth.

|
Reuters
In this official photo, Ukraine soldiers patrol the liberated town of Kupiansk after a Russian retreat Sept. 10. The soldiers' faces have been blurred out.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

The war in Ukraine took another unexpected turn last week. Much like the way Ukrainians repelled a Russian assault on the capital, Kyiv, six months ago, their military was able to retake several cities in the crucial northeast region during a six-day offensive.

The quick Russian retreat and the speed of the Ukrainian blitz suggest more than the quality of weapons may determine the outcome of this war. Ukraine’s troops clearly have higher morale as they are defending their land. Yet as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the start of the war when he bravely stayed put in Kyiv, Ukraine’s best weapon is the truth.

Unlike most Russians, Ukrainians can easily follow reports of the war – both defeats and victories. Their military can more easily recruit willing volunteers, whereas Russia has seen large defections of its volunteer fighters and has experienced difficulties in enticing Russian men to sign up for service in Ukraine.

Even referring to the war as a war can land a Russian in jail. A poll in August by independent pollster Levada found 48% of Russians pay little or no attention to the events in Ukraine. Most media are tightly controlled by the Kremlin.

Ukraine’s ability to command truth as a weapon includes one clever ploy: Many of the captured Russian soldiers are handed a cellphone to call their mothers to reveal details about the war. This has spread news about corruption and bad leadership in the military.

Those problems may help explain Russia’s latest battlefield retreat. As Russian blogger Yuri Podolyaka wrote to his 2.3 million Telegram followers last week, the Russian people could soon cease to trust “the government as a whole.”

To win the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin might need to impose a draft. That alone would be an admission that the war is actually a war and not a “special military operation.” A lie would be exposed, undercutting his popularity.

Critics say Mr. Putin now fears a revolt among Russia’s elite as much as he fears an independent Ukraine. Last June, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Mr. Putin is afraid that a “spark of democracy” could ignite in Russia.

Ukraine is still a long way from winning the war. President Zelenskyy said over the weekend that the next 90 days will determine the country’s future. For now, Russia’s retreat may have put a spark among its people, one lit by Ukraine’s bright beam of truth-telling. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to A key weapon in Ukraine’s blitz
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2022/0912/A-key-weapon-in-Ukraine-s-blitz
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe