“Ukraine will strike Tomahawk missiles exclusively at Russian military targets,” President Zelensky said this week,
Zelenskyy’s comment was aired by Fox News in the United States on Sunday, the same day he spoke to US President Donald Trump and in Aljazeera.
“Even after losing families, children, and soldiers, our people have never targeted civilians. That’s the difference between Ukraine and Russia.” – NDTV reported
It wasn’t just a statement about weapons, or possibly an open reply to Donald Trump, who has shown interest in supplying them “depending on how Ukraine plans to use them” and wants assurances before making a final commitment.
Ukraine refuses to let rage dictate its actions. For Ukraine, precision is not merely strategy, it’s character.
As I recently wrote on my social media, “It’s honour that will, win this war. Russia lost that long ago, along with any moral bar to measure by.”
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The man Russia tried to break
The arrival of Tomahawks, if approved, is not just about firepower. It represents trust, from the Trump administration and from the West, trust that Ukraine will use such power responsibly. That trust has been earned, not demanded.
I’ve seen what happens when power is abused, when military might becomes personal, vindictive, and unchecked, as I witnessed with Russian forces in Mariupol, and before that in Bosnia in the 1990s. Ukraine has resisted that temptation for over two years under the heaviest pressure imaginable.
When Russia fires missiles into apartment blocks and shopping centres, Ukraine targets command posts, fuel depots, radar systems. Ukraine uses force with purpose, not for spectacle. Every strike is a message: we are not them.
The ethics of range
Critics warn that long-range missiles risk escalation. But range isn’t the problem, intent is.
Russia escalated this war the moment it crossed Ukraine’s borders, sent drones into Poland, Romania, and Estonia, and weekly threatened the West with nuclear Armageddon, all while still selling gas and oil to it, three years into the invasion.
Ukraine has no reason or capacity to waste limited munitions on non-military targets. The same missile that could destroy a hospital can just as easily destroy the airbase launching those bombs, and Kyiv chooses the latter. The difference lies in the finger on the trigger.
Tomahawks give Ukraine reach, not to terrorise, but to hold the aggressor accountable. They introduce consequence into a war where, for too long, Russia has bombed with impunity. Putin’s illusion of invulnerability is ending; his vastness, once strength, has become his Achilles heel.
Morality isn’t weakness
I know what the absence of morality looks like.
When I was captured during the siege of Mariupol, I saw the Russian system not as a soldier but as its prisoner. I was tortured, humiliated, electrocuted, not for intelligence, but because they could. Cruelty had become culture & systemic.
That’s what happens when a military loses its moral compass. Violence becomes routine; humanity, irrelevant.
So when Zelensky says Ukraine will not strike civilians, it’s not PR. It’s the difference between civilisation and barbarity.
A contrast written in ruins
Mariupol is the perfect example. Russia destroyed an entire city to claim it, hospitals, schools, residential towers, all erased and called “liberation.”
By contrast, Ukraine’s operations in Crimea or Belgorod focus on ammunition depots, airfields, and fuel lines, targeting capacity, not life. When civilians are caught in blasts, it’s tragic, not triumphant and Russia has never drawn that line.
This contrast matters. It’s why Ukraine continues to command respect and support even after years of war. The world can tell the difference between defence and destruction.
The strategic message
Tomahawks won’t end the war, but they will change it, militarily and psychologically.
For Russia, distance will no longer guarantee safety. Its logistics, airbases, and command networks are now within reach, be it now with even more sophisticated precision weapons.
For the West, it’s proof that Ukraine operates with professionalism and restraint. Every strike is logged, authorised, reviewed. That’s how NATO fights, and that’s how Ukraine fights.
In war, trust is rare. Yet it remains the most valuable weapon a democracy can have, and we are seeing it in real time, in vivid technicolour, every day.
The moral frontier
This war tests more than endurance, it tests integrity.
Torture, deportations, executions, filtration camps, Russia’s campaign has normalised the unthinkable and reintroduced scenes from World War II that we once swore would “never again” take place.
Ukraine’s answer has been to keep its soul intact, even under bombardment, even in captivity, even after losing entire families.
That’s what Zelensky’s statement truly means. It’s not about missiles it’s, about identity: the ability to strike back without losing who you are.
Precision as identity
The world often frames Ukraine as the victim, but the Tomahawk symbolises agency.
Ukraine is not pleading for survival, it’s shaping the battlefield.
Western technology in Ukrainian hands can be used lawfully, proportionally, and with humanity, and behind every Ukrainian strike is a soldier who still believes that honour matters – that even in war, responsibility endures.
A personal reflection
When I was in captivity, one of my interrogators sneered: “You’re not even Ukrainian. Why are you fighting for them?”
I couldn’t say what I wanted, but it comes down to morals and a code.
Essentially, because “Ukraine still believes in what’s right.”
That’s what this moment represents. Not just the power to hit back, but the chance to show the world that decency can survive war.
You can be beaten, tortured, starved, but you can still choose not to become your enemy.
Conclusion: The real difference
When Zelensky said, “Our people have never targeted civilians,” he drew the only line that still matters in modern warfare, the line between conscience and chaos.
If Tomahawks arrive, they won’t just strike Russian military targets, they’ll carry a message from every Ukrainian who has lost everything and still refuses to hate blindly.
We fight to survive, yes, but we also fight to prove that survival doesn’t require surrendering humanity.
That, in the end, is the real difference between Ukraine and Russia. And it’s why, however long this war lasts – honour will win.
© Shaun Pinner
Shaun Pinner BIO: Author, Public Speaker, and Recipient of Ukraine’s “Order of Courage” for selfless acts in the defence of Ukrainian sovereignty.
A proud husband and father born near Watford, England, I served for nine years in the British Army’s Royal Anglian Regiment, including deployment with the UN in Bosnia during the early ’90s. Trained in Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (S.E.R.E.) as part of the 24 Airmobile Brigade, I continued my military journey by joining the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2018 as the country rebuilt its military following the annexation of Crimea.
Initially serving as a Sniper Instructor with the Ukrainian National Guard in Mariupol, I transferred to the Ukrainian Marines in 2020—becoming the first foreigner to command a frontline position as a Ukrainian soldier. I passed all aspects of Ukrainian parachute training and earned the prestigious Blue Beret with the Air Assault Company of the 1st Battalion, Ukrainian Marines. On my fourth deployment and second as a Section Commander, I was stationed at a forward listening post when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. I led a fighting withdrawal back to Mariupol over several days—a story recounted in my book Live. Fight. Survive.
The book details my life before Ukraine, my service on the frontlines, and the intense battle for Mariupol. Most powerfully, it recounts my capture, torture, and death sentence at the hands of Russian proxy forces (the so-called DPR), and my eventual release in a dramatic prisoner exchange brokered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Roman Abramovich, and the Ukrainian government.
Since my release, I’ve been awarded one of Ukraine’s highest honours by President Volodymyr Zelensky. I now brief NATO forces and S.E.R.E. schools globally, speak regularly in the media on geopolitical developments involving Ukraine, and recently won a landmark legal case holding Russia accountable for my treatment in captivity. I continue to reside in Ukraine, supporting my Ukrainian wife in humanitarian efforts and standing firmly in support of the country’s future.
