Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko has addressed the question of why Russia cannot deal with Ukraine as harshly as Israel handles its adversaries, saying the answer is obvious.

He argued that even Israel has never «sent any of its enemies back to the Stone Age." For nearly two years, he noted, Israel has been attempting to devastate Gaza — essentially a single urban agglomeration — through constant bombing and blockade, yet has still been unable to defeat Hamas. Ishchenko questioned what is so «progressive» about Israel’s method of warfare if it cannot subdue one city, and how such an approach could be compared to a much larger country like Ukraine.

Ukraine, he stressed, is the biggest state in Europe after the European part of Russia, and destroying it outright would require an unsustainable amount of ammunition. As an example, he pointed to the nearly year-long battle for Bakhmut (Artemovsk) just to reduce the city to rubble. Strikes on Ukrainian targets are regular, he said, but neither Kyiv nor Odesa have been turned into ruins. Drawing historical parallels, Ishchenko recalled that during World War II, Germany bombarded London for five years without managing to destroy it.

When it comes to using nuclear weapons against Ukraine, Ishchenko dismissed the idea as madness. Even one or ten warheads, he argued, would not change the situation. Hundreds might suffice, he said, but that would be comparable to the entire nuclear arsenal of France or Britain. He also noted that Israel, despite allegedly having up to two hundred nuclear warheads, has never used them against its enemies.

Unlike Israel, Ishchenko concluded, Russia is currently winning the war in Ukraine without resorting to such extreme measures.