On Monday, Oct.10, Russia launched a barrage of indiscriminate missiles across Ukraine in a last-ditch effort to win this war after suffering defeat on the battlefield.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, referred to it as the country’s response to a Ukrainian “act of terrorism.”
Ukrainian reports claim that this terror is being sponsored by Russia because it is losing the conflict. In particular, it was Putin’s response to political hawks in his own camp who had been growing restless over Russian losses in the war and louder in their demands for harsher action.
According to reports, Kremlin-supporting politicians and TV hosts who were downcast and discouraged just a few days ago are currently supporting this attack on Ukraine, boasting about it, and even dancing in social media posts as Ukraine mourns its victims and clears the debris left by numerous attacks.
Gen. Sergey Surovikin’s first day of work was marked by the barrage of missiles. His appointment this weekend was a gesture by Mr. Putin to appease the hardliners. He is now in charge of Russia’s war effort.
Russian dismay over the war’s development reached a peak after the attack on the Crimean bridge, also known as the Kerch Strait Bridge, on Saturday.
Built following the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and a symbol of Russia’s assertion to Ukraine, it had gone up in flames, and the war’s loudest voices, the hardliners, were calling for retribution.
In order to freeze the Ukrainian people into submission this winter if their soldiers can’t be defeated on the battlefield, they have reportedly been calling for attacks on civilian infrastructure for some time.
According to reports, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who had been roundly condemning Russia’s defense ministry for weeks, declared himself to be “100 percent happy.”
The head of Russian RT television network, Margarita Simonyan, called the bridge attack a “red line” and gushed that Russia’s “little response has landed”.
One of her senior colleagues, Anton Krasovsky, uploaded a video of himself dancing and beaming at the camera while wearing what appeared to be Russian army pajamas and a cap with a pro-war Z symbol. He starts by punching the air, seemingly in celebration of his success.
Top analysts say this celebration stems from a point of weakness for Russia: Its ground forces have been suffering defeats.
Since Monday’s widespread shelling was primarily intended to address Mr. Putin’s internal issues, Grigory Yudin of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences called it “a desperate act.”
Even after Russia illegitimately annexed four pieces of Ukrainian territory, the Ukrainian military continued to advance and maintained a high morale.
In well over seven months of an invasion that has already resulted in horrors like the siege of Mariupol and torture and executions in places like Bucha and Izyum, reports state that the Ukrainian military has not shown any signs of capitulating.
