Ukraine continues to carry out air attacks on Russian territory, citing the destruction of infrastructure key to Moscow's military efforts and a response to Russia's strikes on Ukrainian territory. For example, on August 22, 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the Russians had repelled a Ukrainian attack and intercepted 28 drones over six of their regions. The governor of the Volgograd region also spoke of a fire on the territory of a military facility. This turned out to be an attack by the Security Services of Ukraine on the Marinovka airfield. Earlier, the mayor of Moscow had also spoken of “one of the largest attacks” by drones on the Russian capital. Although the Ukrainian side did not comment specifically on the Moscow mayor's address, anonymous and pro-Russian Telegram channels began to claim that Ukraine would pay for its actions and would receive so-called “revenge shelling” in response.

Now, in the understanding of propagandists, “revenge shelling” is not a direct and not at all hostile attack on Ukraine, but only a way to pay for the fact that the Ukrainian side “decided” to attack Russian territory in the air and on land.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are intensifying the infrastructure war, which increases the risk of corresponding attacks on Ukrainian energy, gas and fuel infrastructure facilities. This will lead to the Ukrainian people becoming hostages of the situation. The black winter in Ukraine could become the largest catastrophe in the entire war”, this is how anonymous telegram users threatened Ukrainians.

In such reports, Ukraine is once again portrayed as the aggressor, and Russia as the victim, which is trying to defend itself. Moreover, if Ukraine can really resort to shelling military facilities in Russia, then Moscow is seething over everything and even calls it a “legitimate target”: this is how the Kremlin has long blurred the boundaries between civilian and military facilities, allowing itself to shell residential buildings, public institutions, kindergartens and schools.

For example, on August 26, 2024, Russia launched its most massive air strike on Ukraine. According to Forbes Ukraine, the cost of the attack is $1.2–1.3 billion. Russia attacked 15 Ukrainian regions, including the Kyiv hydroelectric power station. The station was hit and damaged as a result of the shelling, but there is no threat of a dam break. There are also reports of casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure in other regions.

In short, the occupiers are deliberately committing genocide against Ukrainians, killing them in their homes. At the same time, Moscow is trying to whitewash itself and deny any crimes, hiding it all under the term “revenge shelling”: supposedly the Kremlin is exclusively a victim. But documented cases of Russian terror show what the terrorist country Russia is really doing.