Last Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine (S.B.U.) announced that it had detained a Russian military intelligence agent. The agent was arrested for premeditating an attack on Odessa, Ukraine’s largest Black Sea port.

The Russian agent’s premeditation was evidenced in his attempt to recruit a potential attacker. According to the S.B.U., his aim was to “shake up the political situation” in the area surrounding Odessa by destroying the port and committing related acts of terrorism.

The Russo-Ukrainian War originated with a Ukrainian Parliament vote and pre-existing civil unrest removing Viktor Yanukovch from the Ukrainian presidency in February 2014. The Federal Council of the Russian Federation then approved Russian president Vladimir Putin to use military force in Ukraine, at which point Moscow-based troops seized the territories of Sevastopol and Crimea. The Ukrainian government later determined the referendum allowing for this military action to be illegal, consequently building tensions between the nations.

Government forces from Ukrainian capital Kyiv have argued that 15,000 people have been killed throughout the ongoing conflict. Civilians appear to have grown especially tense recently, with a Molotov cocktail being thrown at a Russian consulate in the Ukrainian city of Lviv during December 2021.

With widespread concern from the U.S. and Western and Ukrainian leaders alike, Russia has denied the possibility of further attacks on Ukraine. However, Russia has simultaneously demanded that N.A.T.O., a military alliance created as a counterweight to Soviet armies after WWII, deny membership to Ukraine.
U.S. and Russian officials began talks in Geneva on Monday to try to de-escalate the crisis. “I don’t think we’re gonna see any, any breakthroughs…in the coming week,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told C.N.N. that Sunday.

According to Russia’s state-owned news agency, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov believes that there may be no need for further meetings after this coming week. “I can’t rule out anything, this is an entirely possible scenario and the Americans… should have no illusions about this,” Ryabkov said.

In the midst of eye-catching names like Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, it seems as though the struggle of both nations’ citizens is being overlooked. While governmental forces of Kyiv have argued that 15,000 people have died, N.P.R. reported last Wednesday that “everything seems normal [in Kyiv]… Ukrainian people have gotten used to this intense friction with Russia.” Is it the case, then, that some citizens have normalized it, and others have died for it, or rather that the whole truth is not being told in either depiction? This may reveal a deeper truth: the issue is no longer about Putin, Biden and N.A.T.O. It will ultimately and most intimately lie in the citizens’ hands, bloodied or dry.