When Vladimir Putin appeared on state television to accuse Ukraine of striking a student dormitory, he did something more than escalate the rhetoric. He turned a military conflict into a moral drama. The Kremlin claims Ukrainian shells hit a residential building in Belgorod, killing students.
British intelligence assessments, however, remain sceptical, noting that such claims often precede a new wave of retaliation. What we are witnessing is not just a dispute over facts, but a fierce contest over who gets to define the human cost of this war. For those of us watching from the sidelines, the language is chillingly familiar.
It is the same script used to justify previous escalations: the enemy is not just an adversary, but a threat to innocent life. On the streets of Moscow, the narrative is met with grim silence. People know the cost of this war is already high.
But in the suburbs of Kyiv, where drone alerts have become the backdrop to daily life, the counter-narrative takes hold. Here, the talk is of necessity, not morality. The human story is always more complex than the official line.
Whether the dormitory was hit or not, the real tragedy is how easily civilian suffering is weaponised. In the end, the truth may not matter. What matters is who tells it first, and who shouts loudest.
That is the cultural shift we must watch: the moment when human lives become a currency of power.
