Russia Officially Declares War on Ukraine & Mobilizes 300,000 Troops

Jakub Ferencik
7 min readMar 26, 2024

Immediately after the ISIS terrorist attack in Moscow that killed at least 133 people and injured 145 at a concert hall on the outskirts of the city, the terrorist group took credit for the attack.

In a statement on Telegram, the Islamic State said the shooting came within the context of the “raging war” between Islamic State and countries fighting Islam.

Yet, still, Vladimir Putin managed to take advantage of this attack and blame Ukrainians, suggesting that “the Ukrainian side” had “prepared a window” for the terrorists to cross the border from Russia into Ukraine.

“They tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” Putin said in a televised address.

Of course, Ukraine has had the opportunity to target citizens in retaliation against Russia’s war but fails to since the rules of war do not allow the needless and indiscriminate targeting of civilians. When Ukraine targets Russian territory, it takes out important military targets or refineries. Ukraine is simply not interested in killing Russian noncombatants.

That does not prevent Putin’s propaganda machine from taking advantage of the situation of course.

So, what will this mean for Ukraine? Will Putin further take advantage of this in order to bolster support for another mobilization?

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Jakub Ferencik

Journalist in Prague | Author of “Up in the Air,” “Beyond Reason,” & "Surprised by Uncertainty" on AMAZON | MA McGill Uni | 750+ articles with 1+ mil. views