“No One Even Tried to Stop This Foretold Murder”: Expert Explains What the World's Response to the Shelling of Ukraine Should Be

Political strategist Mykhailo Sheitelman explained that Putin not only orders strikes on peaceful Ukrainian cities but also publicly announces these attacks in advance, knowing that the world will not respond, reports Politeka.

He discussed this in his blog.

“There is a book by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. Of course, you know him for One Hundred Years of Solitude and No One Writes to the Colonel. But he also wrote a novella called Chronicle of a Death Foretold. What Putin is doing is exactly that—a foretold murder. And, notice, no one has even tried to stop this foretold murder. No one. Everyone heard Putin’s speech (editor’s note: in which he announced the strikes on Ukraine). Did many world leaders come forward and say, ‘We will retaliate. You will be destroyed immediately. Putin, you will be destroyed if you do this’?” Sheitelman commented.

According to the expert, publicly announcing a massive attack and then carrying out strikes against civilians is a real-life Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Putin openly declared it to everyone without hesitation, apparently confident that there would be no consequences for his actions.

Nevertheless, he noted, Russian forces destroyed five outpatient clinics in Kyiv in a single night. This, he suggested, was apparently the “military infrastructure” that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had referred to when announcing systematic strikes. In addition, the expert emphasized that Russian forces struck the city of Dnipro with cluster munitions in an apparent attempt to maximize civilian casualties. Cluster munitions are intended for use against personnel, he said, and their use in this context constitutes a war crime.

“A chronicle of a foretold murder that no one can stop. Do you understand? Márquez wrote that book so that we would stop a foretold murder, so that terrorist number one would be eliminated immediately and at any cost. Instead, they (editor’s note: world leaders) continue talking to him. Even the Anti-Corruption Foundation now says that conversations with a terrorist should not be normalized—Russians themselves are saying this. Yet the world is still normalizing this chronicle of a foretold murder. Unfortunately,” Sheitelman concluded.