No, not the U.S.-Mexico border. And not the Israel-Gaza border. Not even the DMZ between North and South Korea.

This is the Kursk region, where western Russia meets eastern Ukraine.

And for the last 2-1/2 years, Russia has been using it — and similar areas along the Russia-Ukraine border — as launching pads for its massive attack on Ukraine’s military, infrastructure, and civilian population. You know, the “special military operation” that was supposed to be a simple “march-in-and-take-over” campaign, meant to last no more than a few days, or a couple of weeks at most.

Well, that didn’t happen, because the Ukrainian people refused to give away their country, their children, or themselves to Vladimir Putin’s maniacal plan to take over the world, one country at a time. And because the West came together and defended Ukraine in an unprecedented show of support for a country that isn’t yet a member of NATO.

We all know what a battering Ukraine has been taking ever since, despite their heroic defense and the continuing support of the West. And earlier this month, the decision was made to take Russia’s war onto its own territory, to finally let them know that paybacks can, indeed, be hell.

But Vladimir Putin was not prepared for that — nor, obviously, were his people. Because they had no idea what was really happening across the border; they knew only what Putin allowed them to hear. And it was mostly lies.

So now the people of Kursk are experiencing — on a much, much smaller scale — the horrors of war with which the people of Ukraine have been living for some 30 months. And, as always, it is the innocent civilians who suffer the most. The children who can’t understand what has happened to their homes; the old folks who can barely move, and who don’t want to leave their lifelong homes; and the women left to take care of the others because their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers are fighting to defend them and their homes against . . . what?

Most of them don’t even know, really, what the fight is about; and if they did, they wouldn’t want any part of it. Many of them have Ukrainian relatives and friends; they are ethnically one and the same people. Why are they killing each other, destroying one another’s homes and lives?

Because Putin wants Ukraine, and he doesn’t care how many lives have to be destroyed in the process.

And we may sit at home, smugly cheering Ukraine’s counteroffensive and the damage being done to Putin. From a tactical point of view, that’s great. But the ones who started the whole thing and are keeping it going are far from the front, plotting the number of additional recruits they will need to replace the thousands who have died, and are continuing to die.

And the innocent — the good, generous, loving, everyday Russian people — are suffering alongside their Ukrainian counterparts.

For war does not respect borders.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/18/24