https://www.memri.org/reports/russias-special-operation-turns-war
August 24, 2022, marked six months since the beginning of Russia's “special military operation.” Coincidentally, on this date, Ukrainians celebrated the 31st anniversary of their country's independence. In one of my previous analyses, I mentioned that it looked doubtful that Russia would crush the Ukrainian resistance any time soon.[1]
As everyone knows, the Kremlin fiercely resists calling its “special operation” a “war” against Ukraine, or even against the “Kyiv junta.” This reflects not only its addiction to lies and “newspeak,” but rather the Kremlin's notion that the Russian aggression should be considered a presumably “measured” use of force abroad undertaken to protect national interests. This is nothing new. In similar cases, most countries do not declare war on others. For example, President George W. Bush never asked the Congress to declare war on Iraq in 2002 but rather got from it an Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF), as happened in previous cases (e.g., Korea and Vietnam).
By designating their incursion as a “special military operation,” the Russian leaders presupposed, that the aggression would not backfire in a way that would harm the Russian people. They believed it would have been just another “adventure,” like the involvements in Georgia in 2008, Crimea and Donbass in 2014, or in Syria since 2015. However, after several months of the “special military operation,” Ukrainian forces started to set up targets in Russia (or at least in the regions the Russian leadership claims belong to it), this has not happened in the country since, I would say, Chechen separatists carried out terrorist attacks in Russian cities – including several in Moscow – around 20 years ago.