KYIV — As air raid sirens echo through Kyiv amidst another morning of Russian ballistic missile attacks, Dr. Wolfgang Ressmann has issued a stark reminder to the public: the true goal of these strikes is psychological warfare.

Drawing on his extensive experience as the founder of the Media Dialogue project – an initiative launched after the 2014 Maidan revolution to support democratic media and civil society in Ukraine and neighboring countries – Dr. Ressmann addressed the anxiety from these attacks. While acknowledging the genuine tragedy for those directly impacted by the strikes, the Youth4Media’s Media Dialogue Chairman urged citizens and the international press to view the bombardment through a lens of rationality rather than sheer panic.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AIR TERRORISM

The immediate reaction to a barrage of ballistic missiles is naturally one of profound fear. However, Dr. Ressmann emphasizes that this collective anxiety is exactly what the attacks are designed to achieve.

“To be scared by the Russians is one of the things they want,” Ressmann stated.

By keeping the population entirely fixated on the threat of incoming missiles, the Russian military aims to paralyze civil society. He categorizes the strikes not merely as military operations, but as psychological warfare intended to break the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

“This is a war of terror. This is pure air terrorism what Russia is doing. We have to work with it serious but also rational.”

REJECTING THE WORLD WAR II COMPARISON

Addressing the international media’s framing of the attacks, Dr. Ressmann pushed back against comparisons to the devastating bombings of World War II, where entire cities were wiped out overnight.

He pointed out the vast scale of Kyiv, a sprawling metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. From a statistical perspective, even a severe barrage of 80 ballistic rockets has “limited possibilities” to completely destroy a city of that magnitude.

“The danger to come to death as a civilian in Kyiv is rather less than the scare is high,” he explained. While any loss of life or destruction of buildings is a deeply dramatic situation and a clear act of terror, he stressed that the structural reality does not equate to the total annihilation seen in the 1940s. Presenting it as such inadvertently plays into the Kremlin’s hands by amplifying the exact panic they wish to spread.

THE STRATEGY OF CALM

So, how does a civilian population counter a strategy of pure air terrorism? According to Dr. Ressmann, the answer lies in balancing absolute caution with rational calm.

His advice to those facing the daily reality of these attacks is not to ignore the threat. On the contrary, Dr. Ressmann says that everyone needs to take the threat seriously, and always use bomb shelters whenever possible and do not ignore the alerts.

But it is important to refuse to panic. People need to understand that the psychological terror is the weapon. Staying composed blunts its effectiveness. And, of course, we need to maintain the perspective, to recognize that Russia’s physical capacity to destroy Ukraine is limited, even if their desire to cause fear seems boundless.

Ultimately, Dr. Ressmann’s message is a call for steadfast resilience. By facing the threat seriously but rationally, citizens can actively dismantle the primary weapon in Russia’s current campaign: terror itself.

Xhabir Deralla

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