The enemy continues massive rocket attacks on Ukraine. However, although such shelling brings a lot of destruction and death, they in no way affect the situation at the front. Therefore, the question arises, why does Putin need this: to damage Ukrainian infrastructure, maintain his authority, or simply intimidate Ukrainians?
SiteChannel 24 figured out why Putin again arranges rocket terror in Ukraine and whether shelling will continue in the near future.
Cruise missiles and kamikaze drones against Ukrainian civilians
From October 7 to 18, the occupiers inflicted almost 200 massive strikes with missiles, kamikaze drones and artillery on 16 regions of Ukraine and Kyiv.
The State Emergency Service said that the strikes were carried out mainly on critical infrastructure facilities, in particular, on energy facilities and residential buildings. As a result of these recent massive attacks, more than 70 Ukrainians were killed, 240 people were injured, and more than 380 objects were damaged.
However, Russia cannot intimidate Ukrainians with rocket attacks and new kamikaze drones happened. The Ukrainians only got angry and began to donate more actively to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
British intelligence says that the Russians have resorted to a new missile terror of the civilian population because of failures at the front. The Ukrainian Armed Forces, meanwhile, continue to do their work on several fronts, and the Russians have to come up with new “gestures of goodwill.”
“As Russia has been failing on the battlefield since August, it has likely become more willing to strike on civilian infrastructure in addition to Ukrainian military targets,” the message reads.
Russia has already done a lot of damage to Ukraine with constant shelling/Defense Express
In addition, intelligence officers noted that the main goal of these strikes is likely to cause widespread damage to Ukraine's energy distribution network. Russia, on the other hand, uses cruise missiles and kamikaze drones purchased from Iran to strike at non-military targets and civilians. “>Missile terror due to failures at the front
Alexander Yaroshchuk, journalist, international observer, notes that massive shelling of Ukrainian cities today is one of the key methods of warfare by the Kremlin terrorist regime. Unable to win on the battlefield, Moscow resorts to openly terrorist methods – shelling civilian infrastructure and residential buildings.
After the defeats in the Kharkiv region, Liman and Kherson region, the Kremlin leadership, which needs success, decided that it was necessary to create a good television picture to maintain the morale of their electorate.
In essence, one of the goals of this series of terrorist attacks is to give reason for euphoria to the narrow-minded inhabitants of Russia. The Kremlin is also trying to cripple the Ukrainian energy system on the eve of winter in the hope that this will cause a riot within Ukraine, Yaroshchuk says.
He adds that the Kremlin is trying to force Ukrainians to leave their country. In addition, there is a purely military task in these shellings – to identify Ukrainian air defense and destroy it. In this case, the Kremlin could use missile terror and aviation more actively. By resorting to shelling, the Kremlin shows its determination to fight for a long time, until its own victory, and for this it will look for different ways and methods.
Oleg Sahakyan, political scientist, co-founder of the National Platform for Resilience and Cohesion, says that rocket attacks have one goal – the Kremlin is trying to get a complex effect from rocket terror.
That is, to move the war deep into our rear, to intimidate Ukrainians, to show that there is not a single safe settlement on the map, and missiles, together with drones, can fly anywhere.
However they still do not understand that they have put Ukraine before an existential choice, and our pain threshold is now lower than the Russian one. This terror irritates and unites us even more, it stimulates us to find solutions to strengthen the resilience of the energy system and the entire infrastructure. says Sahakyan.
Putin wants to demonstrate his power and strength/Getty Images
He says another Russian goal is to demonstrate to the West and Ukraine's allies that the Kremlin is ready for a new level of escalation. According to Moscow, this is what will help them undermine Western solidarity with Ukraine and persuade us to negotiate. But they miscalculated in this, too, because, on the contrary, they give us and will continue to give us even more modern weapons, in particular, air defense systems. At the same time, the impossibility of negotiations becomes not only understandable, but also legitimate in the eyes of Western societies.
Finally, the daily shelling of Ukrainian cities has an internal Russian political projection. Russian propaganda instead of “kill a fascist” is already promoting the thesis “kill a Ukrainian”. Pictures of destruction and casualties enter the Russian audience and distract them from the events at the front. They also help to temporarily revive the image of a “strong Putin,” the expert says.
Andriy Martynov, a leading researcher at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, says that the motivation for mass shelling takes into account the Kremlin's desire to intimidate Ukrainians, maintain Putin's approval ratings among his core constituency, and damage Ukraine's critical infrastructure.
The leading motive is the desire to force Ukraine into negotiations on Russian terms. There is a motive to demonstrate “Russian power” before the midterm elections of both houses of the US Congress, which are to be held on November 6, and also to show this “power” before the G20 summit, which will be held on November 16 in Indonesia,” Martynov explained.
Putin wants to force Ukraine to make concessions
Oleksandr Khmelevsky, Ph.D. in Economics, an independent expert, says that Putin expects that due to the destruction of infrastructure, residential buildings, the killing of civilians, power outages and heating in the winter, Ukrainians will demand from their government to conclude a peace agreement with Russia on any terms.
Also, such attacks increase his rating. Most Russians support the war and hate Ukrainians. They perceive every blow to residential buildings, the death of civilians as a victory for Russia. Putin's main goal is to force Ukraine to make concessions, Khmelevsky says.
Will massive shelling continue? shelling
Alexander Khmelevsky believes that the strikes will continue. Missiles and drones in Russia have not yet ended, and Iran has already announced the supply of ballistic missiles to Russia. Therefore, it is very important to provide Ukraine with air defense systems. Without them, we will face great destruction and many victims.
So far, the Kremlin has not been able to achieve any of its goals. On the battlefield, the Russians have yet another defeat, but in order to maintain a jingoistic picture, the Kremlin resorts to shelling and terrorizing the civilian population.
It should be understood that attacks using drones and missiles will actually occur on a weekly basis, if not more often. The latest reports on the acquisition of ballistic missiles from Iran indicate the preparation of a new series of attacks on the cities and military installations of Ukraine. Unfortunately, the winter will be hard – shelling will become commonplace, – says Alexander Yaroshchuk.
Massive rocket attacks will continue
Yury Shulipa, lawyer, political expert, director of the International Union “Institute for National Policy”, says that the aggressor will suspend the intensity of attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure after the exhaustion of the number of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles it has, or the understanding of the futility of carrying out attacks due to the effectiveness of air defense systems Ukraine.
In order to force the aggressor to stop rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities, the leadership of Ukraine needs to raise a question with the Pentagon and Western partners about providing Ukraine with medium-range missiles with a radius of destruction of 3,000 kilometers and beyond to deliver symmetrical responses to the aggressor's critical infrastructure. Shulipa believes.
Oleg Sahakyan noted that we should expect regular attacks. As long as they become a key tool in this war. The Russians will try to keep the defense on most of the front and try to achieve local success in the Donbass.
They understand that now we cannot repel all the numerous rocket and drone attacks -kamikaze, so they will try to terrorize the Ukrainians. But we also do not sit idly by. No matter how hard Moscow tries, it will not destroy our rear and our desire to inflict a military defeat on them,” Sahakyan summed up.
Therefore, we see that Putin is trying to maintain his image of a “strong leader” and “strong Russia” However, even here he was defeated. After all, the Ukrainians were not intimidated by another shelling, and the Western partners and allies of Ukraine are only making a decision to supply even more weapons and air defense systems.
