What Will Happen After Putin's Death? May 15th 2025
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It is 15 of May. I recently came to a very important realization. It's a heavy one and it doesn't bring any comfort, but it's something we need to acknowledge.

Look, for years we in Ukraine have been living in anticipation of the war ending. We've been making plans for the post-war period, dreaming about what we'll do once it's over. We've structured our entire existence around this idea of after the war. But here's the truth. There will be no after the war. There will be only war.

It will intensify at times when shift into a frozen or semi-frozen phase, but it won't end because there is no one to end it.

The entire ideology of modern Russia is built around the idea of destroying Ukraine. That idea consumes nearly the entire nation, from the president down to the janitor. There is no alternative vision, no other cultural foundation. Every year Russians publish

hundreds of books about the necessity of destroying Ukraine. Where TV movies, even comic books are nearly all about how great and noble it is to kill Ukrainians in their schools. They dedicate so much time to teaching children that their main purpose in life is to die in the trench fighting Ukrainians. But I wouldn't be surprised if next year Russia

cancels math and chemistry classes altogether and replaces them with lessons on how glorious is to die for Putin. What's important to understand is that this has been going on for years. The first generation of children who were raised after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and who were

taught from the early years that Ukraine has no right to exist are now old enough to have children of their own.

And they see the war to annihilate Ukraine as completely normal. They grew up with it. Their parents cursed Ukrainians in their kitchens at night. Their teachers told them Ukraine must not exist. And on television they saw movies portraying Ukrainians as disgusting, cunning, treacherous creatures who deserved only death. Of course, their children will see the world exactly the same as their parents.

Russia as country is programmed for war with Ukraine. It has no other purpose. In a few years or in a few decades Putin will die and someone younger will take his place. But that person will have been raised in the same propaganda, shaped by the same so-called cultural environment, one that offers no meaning other than we need to commit genocide against Ukrainians.

Any ceasefire, any pause in active fighting, even the slight softening in war rhetoric will be seen by the Russian public as betrayal. That's why the Russian government, any Russian government, will never end this war. We need to be ready for that.

We must understand that all of these – the bombings, the torture of prisoners, the abduction of children from the occupied territories, the occupation itself, the terror attacks, the concentration camps – this is all permanent. At least for several generations. If, of course, those generations are even born.