Ukraine has carried out some devastating attacks on Russian infrastructure in recent weeks, using drones and other weapons to strike at Russia’s energy facilities, as well as at warehouses owned by Wildberries, the “Amazon of Russia,” and other locations. Many of those strikes have been deadly, including the deaths of civilians.
Does this represent a change in Ukraine’s posture when it comes to civilian casualties? Politico’s European arm looked at that question this week.
MLRS Firing Creative Commons Image
As noted by Politico, Russian civilians have been mostly shielded from attacks by Ukraine for most of the war, but that has begun to change recently.
With Ukraine starting to target more locations in Russia that are not of pure military utility, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called to “bring the war back home – to Russia.” Zelensky refers to these long-range attacks, especially on oil facilities, as “long-range sanctions.”
Ukraine, per the report, has become more willing to see Russian civilian casualties as “a price they are prepared to pay for taking the war deeper into enemy territory.” At the same time, Ukraine has been suffering massive amounts of casualties.
As noted by Politico, citing Russia’s statistics, 253 Russian civilians were killed in the entire year of 2025. This year, however, 79 civilians were killed — and 601 injured — in the month of July this year alone.
The United Nations said in a separate report on August 13 that July was the deadliest month of the war since March 2022.
Defending the Carnage
Politico quoted Ukrainian lawmaker Maryana Bezuhla, a frequent critic of President Zelensky, as defending the attacks on places like Wildberries.
“Russia’s logistics system is used to wage the war of aggression against Ukraine,” Bezuhla told the outlet. “Russia has been targeting Ukrainian civilians all the years of the war.”
While Wildberries is not a full-on defense contractor, many Russian soldiers use it to “supplement” their equipment.
This raises a common question in theories of war: How much “collateral damage” is too much?
Politico notes that there is no evidence that Ukraine is deliberately trying to harm civilians, and is certainly being more careful about avoiding doing so than the Russian side of the war is, although Russia has denied throughout the war that they deliberately attack civilians.
But the report also noted that Ukraine doesn’t appear to be considering changing its strategy to avoid such casualties.
“It is a very important thing to stress from the outset that any civilian casualties resulting from Ukrainian attacks are collateral damage,” Jaroslava Barbieri, Ukraine expert at Britain’s Chatham House, told Politico. “No Ukrainian strikes have deliberately targeted civilian districts.” Barbieri went on to note that Russia had been “systematically targeting Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure and civilian districts.”
Spreading Out the Casualties
A separate New York Times report, in early August, noted that Russian civilian deaths had been rising in many different parts of Russia, after they had been confined to border regions and occupied areas of Ukraine during earlier stages of the war.
“With Ukraine conducting near-constant assaults even in areas far from the front, Russian civilians are dying in long-range attacks at the highest rate since the war began,” the Times said, citing data from the Conflict Intelligence Team.
The Times also noted that while Ukraine is clear about not targeting civilians, its recent strategy has resulted in an increase in civilian deaths.
A Contentious Point
Politico noted that talk of rising Russian casualties is something that “infuriates Ukrainian officials,” who believe such discussions are an echo of Kremlin talking points.
“You are helping Russia by pushing this civilian stuff,” a Ukrainian presidential aide told Politico.
What can Ukraine do, tactically, to address this problem? Tim Willasey-Wilsey, a former British diplomat who works with the Royal United Services Institute, had an answer for Politico.
“As we know from the history of warfare, the bombing of civilians tends to actually harden people’s resistance rather than weaken it,” Willasey-Wilsey told the outlet.
“Just think of the London Blitz, but also Ukraine now. And second, there is a danger of losing what still is a remarkable degree of Western support for Ukraine… “But you cannot wage war without casualties.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
