Chronicle of an expected aftershock. This Monday morning, several cities in Ukraine, including the capital, kyiv, came under Russian bombardment. Strikes that, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, caused “deaths and injuries” throughout the country. In total, 23 Ukrainian regions were affected by the bloody replica of the Kremlin and at the end of the morning, the Ukrainian police mentioned at least 5 people dead and 12 injured.
This wave of bombing comes as the Russian military experiences a succession of military setbacks in Ukraine, but also just hours after the explosion that partially destroyed and disabled the bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the rest of Russian territory.
New doctrine?
Faced with this snub, Vladimir Putin, who convenes a security council this Monday morning that could mark a turning point in the conflict, has decided to strike a blow. According to Sylvie Bermann, former French ambassador to Russia and diplomatic consultant for BFMTV, these attacks are direct revenge against the Russian president.
“It’s an affront to him, he can’t help but react to his ultra-nationalist wing, who asks to hit harder,” he explains.
From there to see a change in Russian military strategy? For Emmanuel Dupuy, president of the Institute for Foresight and Security in Europe, the hypothesis must be seriously considered since the appointment in the last few hours of General Sergueï Sourovikine as the new commander-in-chief of the “special military operation”, a man with a “sinister reputation”. “.
“We call it Armageddon because during the latter part of the Syrian campaign it did the same thing with disproportionate fire directed indiscriminately at civilians and soldiers,” he said.
The images of the attacks this Monday morning in Kyiv show that civilian targets are attacked and hit: the park of the Taras-Shevchenko University, a children’s playground or even the very symbolic bridge of friendship between peoples, located a few steps from the iconic Maidan square. , in the heart of the capital.
“They could have been high value-added military installations, but we are doing the simplest thing, we are targeting cities with missiles that will fall in the middle,” explains General Jérôme Pellistrandi, defense consultant for BFM TV.
Thus, terror could become the new doctrine of the Russian military, already known for its wartime “scorched earth” strategy. “These are useless attacks on a military level but spectacular. It is a warning that there are no new attacks in Crimea,” analyzes Sophie Bermann.
During a speech on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed the “massive” bombing campaign and stressed that the strikes targeted the country’s “energy infrastructure.”
admission of weakness
However, this desire to attack civilians may also testify to an admission of weakness on the part of Moscow, which has to deal with an insufficiently equipped army in the face of Ukrainian soldiers armed by the West and which, above all, comes to the end of their military capabilities.
“It reflects the weakness of the Russian military system, which is unable to respond. […] Is this a swan song? In any case, it does not have military effectiveness, it is to impress. Russia today lacks precision ammunition, it uses surface-to-air missiles that it has modified to go further”, explains General Pellistrandi.
For Patrick Sauce, a journalist specializing in international politics at BFMTV, it is also an admission of Moscow’s weakness in the sense that, if Russia had the capacity, it should have concentrated on “a great counteroffensive, but the Russians cannot.” . fight against the Ukrainian army”.
As Jérôme Pellistrandi points out, phases of the same type, during which an aggressor attacks in all directions with the aim of terrorizing, have already taken place in recent European history.
“It harkens back to what happened in 1944 and 1945 when Nazi Germany bombed England, Antwerp and France to no effect. They were revenge weapons to break morale, but it had no effect, apart unfortunately from civilian casualties.”
Source: BFM TV
