Did the smoke from Moscow in 2026 prevent them from seeing Russian war crimes for four years?

For some time now, there has been a way to spot —from miles away— a perverse bias when discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Five people murdered in a Russian attack on a minibus full of civilians
Russia attacks a children's hospital in Ukraine: how many protests will there be against this?

In case anyone has been living on another planet lately, let us recall that Russia launched an unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022—a war that is a crime in itself but has also been marked by all manner of atrocities committed by the invaders. From the very first day of the invasion, Russian troops have engaged in the killing of unarmed Ukrainian civilians, including children. Russia has demonstrated its nature as a terrorist state by perpetrating massacres such as those in Bucha and Izyum, where unarmed civilians—including children—were murdered in cold blood, often with their hands tied behind their backs.

Since the onset of the invasion, Russia has systematically targeted civilian sites in Ukraine: residential buildings, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, places of worship, museums, universities... Let us recall, for instance, the Russian attack on the Okhmatdyt Hospital—Ukraine's largest pediatric medical center—on July 8, 2024, carried out using Kh-101 cruise missiles equipped with 450 kg explosive warheads. Furthermore, and as I noted here in March of last year, by that time Russia had already attacked 642 places of worship and religious buildings in Ukraine—596 of which were Christian churches and religious buildings—many of which were destroyed. These are war crimes regarding which certain "Christians" (a term I should place in even more quotation marks) who sympathize with Putin have said absolutely nothing.

The Ukrainian energy grid has also been among the invaders' civilian targets. In fact, Russia has systematically attacked Ukrainian power plants every winter to—quite literally—freeze Ukrainian civilians to death. As was the case with other Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine, some remained dead silent regarding these crimes—perhaps because they saw nothing objectionable in Putin’s desire to freeze Ukrainians to death, just as they found no cause for complaint in his intent to murder them in their homes, schools, hospitals, or places of worship.

Naturally, Ukrainians have grown weary of enduring these attacks alone. For some time now, Ukraine has been responding to Russian attacks with counter-strikes against strategic targets within Russia—including oil refineries, facilities that supply fuel for the invading forces' tanks, missiles, aircraft, and ships. With these counter-strikes, Ukraine is taking the entirely legitimate step of bringing the war to the invader's own territory—much like the Allies did when attacking Germany and Japan during World War II. The premise is simple: if you do not want to be attacked, do not invade another country or murder its civilians.

Our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night. One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and the aggressor’s logistics facility were hit. These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine. The systems used included FP-1, RZ-100,… pic.twitter.com/ka5mlDSgb7

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 20, 2026

In the last few hours, Ukraine has successfully attacked the Russian oil industry in the Moscow region. This video was posted this very morning by the Ukrainian president, showing the effects of what he quite rightly calls "long-range responses." Let us bear in mind that this week Russia launched 2,000 attack drones and 19 missiles against Ukraine, many of them targeting civilians. On Wednesday, we saw here a Russian attack on a minibus full of civilians, killing five people in Nikopol. Just yesterday, during an attack on civilian targets in Kyiv, the Russians killed a mother and her two young children in the Fastiv district: they were killed while she was putting her children to bed in their home.

This Sunday —as has become the norm— some people who never say a word about Russian crimes in Ukraine have been scandalized to see Moscow's refineries ablaze. The compassion they fail to show toward Ukrainian civilians—or even toward children killed while sleeping in their homes—is today directed instead at the Russian oil industry. Is it the smoke from Moscow in 2026 that has prevented them, until now, from seeing the Russian crimes in Ukraine? Do they have anything to say about the homes, schools, hospitals, places of worship, museums, daycares, and churches attacked by the Russians in Ukraine, or are they reserving the false pity they now display for Russian oil?