I spent the first summer days in Slavyansk without electricity and the Internet. On June 1 at five in the morning I was awakened by a powerful explosion - it flew in somewhere very close, then the cannonade began. I slept for a couple more hours, then poured boiling water on the oatmeal, and then the electricity went out again. Never had a chance to find out if anyone was hurt by the hit. The most unpleasant is the unknown, when there is no Internet and no way to assess the real danger to the city.
The previous morning, when the missile hit the residential sector of Slavyansk, three people were killed, six were wounded. Before that, the news reported that Russian troops were already fighting in Severodonetsk, and we were being attacked from the direction of Liman. Seversky Donets is on their way, but the enemy only needs to reach the coast and deploy cannon artillery there to begin methodically destroying Slavyansk. For now, Ukrainian troops hold the village of Old Caravan and do not let the orcs reach the shore. But no one knows how long ours will hold out. So the fate of Slavyansk is decided not by kilometers, but by hundreds of meters. There has been no water for a long time. Water and sanitation authority reported that this was due to an accident that de-energized the water intake in the village of Mayaki. This is in the same place, towards Liman on the bank of Seversky Donets, only from our side. So even if the water supply is restored, it will not be for long, although there is not much hope for that either.
Without electricity you have to save battery charge. The only thing left to do was to sunbathe and ride a bike around the city. Although it feels somewhat awkward when you are sunbathing, and combat aircraft are flying low right above you. Every day there are fewer people in the city, but the stores are open. Although they are closed in the center, you can buy everything you need in the central market, though at inflated prices. My house is on a mountain, and it offers a spectacular view for miles. When it starts to darken, white flashes flicker over the horizon - a battle is going on somewhere very far away, but no sounds are heard. So you can see directly that even when we have silence, desperate fighting continues throughout the Donbass arc, and people are dying there now.
The electricity came on last night, and the first thing I did was check the news. For two days, the occupiers have not advanced anywhere, and that cheers. The offensive is fizzling out, which means that Slavyansk has a chance to survive, although you should not count on it much.
When the invasion of Ukraine began, I hoped it would be an ordinary war between states. Now one makes war not to conquer other countries, but to solve political problems, for example, to impose the implementation of Minsk-2 on Ukraine, or to shift the power and create a pro-Russian government in Ukraine. The tasks are obviously unfeasible, but Putin does not know this. However, he unleashed an all-out war without explaining its purpose (he talked about some kind of denazification, but no one understood what it meant). It quickly became clear that this was a war of conquest. But what kind? If similar to the colonial wars of the nineteenth century, then there was hope that, at least to make it easier to govern, the occupiers would not deliberately set the inhabitants of conquered territories against themselves. But even these illusions were quickly dispelled when the systematic bombing of residential neighborhoods, shelling of buses with children, mass rapes, tortures and murders began. The enemy did not even try to pretend to be a "defender of Russian-speakers”. This is no longer a colonial war, but a civilizational war of annihilation. Fighting the aggressor, Ukraine is fighting for universal human values against barbarism, which comes from irrational mindsets (standpoints). They can be called "ethical Satanism”.
On an existential level, I feel it this way. A wave of orcs destroy everything in front of them, then occupy the territory plowed by artillery, and thus slowly move towards my house. Appealing to their human side is useless, and no mercy is to be expected from them. Naturally, I see the orcs as enemies and want them to be destroyed. But they also see me as an enemy and want to destroy me. What is the difference? Both sides equally see each other as enemies. However, there is an ethical gap between our positions.
Orcs perceive everyone who wants to live their own life, independent of Russia, as enemies, because they consider the whole world around them to be evil. Putin himself promised that the destruction of this world would lead them to paradise. Therefore, all of us who now live in Ukraine are automatically considered the embodiment of evil and are enemies for them. They can only allow those who submit to them to survive, and that with no guarantee.
This position stems from the Manichean worldview, in which evil is attributed to the very existence of the world. The surrounding world is perceived as hostile and subject to either subjugation or destruction. I call this picture of the world demonic, or simply put, Satanism. However, I use these terms not as a curse, but as concepts that can be used scientifically. I can argue this.
From antiquity there is an understanding of evil as incompleteness of good, and in Christianity this understanding is specified: evil is interpreted as an incorrect direction of will, denying good. In Buddhism, the world is perceived as neutral. Thus, from a universal human position, with which both believers and atheists will agree, it is unacceptable to attribute evil to the very essence of anything. Contrary to this, the Manichean worldview attributes evil precisely to the essence of the world. This is not Satanism yet, but the way to it, which still has a few steps to be taken.
First step. Evil is attributed to the very essence of the enemy. Therefore, in relation to the enemy, all ethical responsibility is abolished.
Second step. The individual ceases to evaluate his behavior ethically, as he justifies any of his actions by the presence of an enemy. If there is no enemy, it must be found, and this becomes a universal explanatory principle.
Third step. The value system is reversed: if good is done to the enemy, it is considered evil, and if evil, it is considered good. A new system of values is being built, in which good and evil are interchanged.
Last step. A person begins to do evil, which is no longer motivated by his human interests, but by an inverted system of values. If evil has not human, but some other motivation, what do you call it? In all cultures, it is called demonic, and in Christianity it is also called satanic. Regardless of whether we recognize the existence of otherworldly spiritual entities or not, it would be more correct to call a value system based on the inhuman motivation of evil ethical demonism. Since the word "demonic" has too wide range of associations with various artistic images, the term "ethical Satanism" can be used in certain contexts.
If Putin simply wanted to conquer Ukraine, it would be pointless to bomb residential quarters and shoot refugees. Orcs, killing everyone, destroying everything in their path, have no human motivation to do so. They see all of us as enemies based on their own demonic worldview.
I consider them enemies, too. But unlike them, I do not treat anyone as an enemy on the basis of their essence or natural qualities. I will never consider anyone an enemy based on place of residence, nationality, race, religion, culture, citizenship or language. For me, the enemy is only one who has self-determined to evil. It is his choice, and I believe that this choice must be confronted by force, and if necessary by military force, which is what Ukraine is doing now, saving the civilized world from this evil.
