Lthey fetch one by one, as if there were a list of targets and a window of opportunity. Zakhar Prilepin, writer-fighter, is the third to be targeted after the daughter of Dugin and blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Passionate nationalists, supporters of a fight without quarter. They took up the sword, they were struck by the sword. In fact, the militant had been defined by the Ukrainians since 2018 as “a terrorist threat”. Kiev, yesterday, used the formula “we do not confirm we do not deny” a possible role, however has never denied that it is ready to act in Russia and “deeper and deeper”, as his intelligence chief Budanov promised in April a year ago. A strategy carried out with sabotage, raids, eliminations. A trident that proved to be effective in terms of results and propaganda. The demonstration of being able to penetrate any circle of security, from the Crimea to Moscow.
This does not mean that every “accident” or ambush is the work of the Ukrainians and does not even exclude provocations, suspected by some for the mysterious drones on the roof of the Kremlin. The “fog” is the consequence of this type of activity and at the time part of the tactic. Leave uncertainties.
In recent months the Ukrainian services have deployed an apparatus of many dimensions, they have copied the Israelis and their enemies, the Russians. Lacking long-range missiles they opted for drones, commandos planted bombs, a truck full of explosives damaged the Kerch bridge, assassins liquidated collaborators in occupied cities using handgunsloads under the seat of a vehicle, tricks.
Elaborate the plots to reach the target, relying on a couple of occasions – according to the accusations – on women, on probable complicity, on deliberately tortuous turns to mask the “footprints”. Sides obtained with rewards, exploiting rivalries and knowledge of the territory, inserting agents and reactivating those left “asleep”, working with resistance formations. Elements capable of studying the “life path” of the prey, i.e. what it does every single day, friendships, relationships, places frequented, the vehicles it uses and where it does maintenance, if he changes cars and has a driver. The search for the passage and the moment. A front where there is room for Russian “partisans”, possible resistance groups. In the case of Prilepin there has been an assumption of responsibility by Atesh, a movement of the Crimean Tatars. They can be involved, but also the blanket behind which something else is hidden.
Actions must be weighed because they cause distant fibrillations. Behind Ukraine there is a grand coalition that is not always in harmony with Zelensky’s choices, especially if he takes too many risks and takes the challenge into Putin’s backyard. The president is aware of this, as is Budanov, and in fact they don’t tell the Americans everything. Or they claim not to say, and the allies swear they don’t know. A ballet repeated in conjunction with the raid in the skies over Moscow.
This is war, not a ceremony. But it has its rituals. mikhaylo Podolyak, Zelensky’s adviser, indulged in curious comparisons. For the ambush at Prilepin he called into question «Moloch devouring his gods», suggesting the track of reckoning. After the fires in the Belgorod region he evoked “karma” and commented on a strike on Engels’ trail by evoking science: “As Galileo discovered, the Earth is round, if something is launched into another country sooner or later the object steering wheel returns to its starting point.
In reality everything is concrete. Kiev anticipates any offensive with parallel operations, is aware of the internal repercussions in Russia, he hopes to exacerbate the quarrels between the hierarchs and the generals, punishes or has extremist characters punished, feeds the paranoia of the regime and its singers. Every time one of them is about to start the ignition he has to think twice. It’s a grueling duel, where the invader’s response is now possible.