Vladimir Putin's hardline supporters are in a jubilant mood after Russia pummelled civilian targets in Ukraine yesterday - something hawks had been demanding for months.
More than 80 cruise missiles and 24 drones rained down a blitz on Ukraine yesterday, targeting museums, heritage sites and civilian areas in seven key cities, including battle towns Kherson and Zaporizhizhia and the capital of Kyiv.
And as the sun rose this morning, residents were being warned to take cover as a second day of shelling looms.
Moscow's biggest blitz on Ukraine since the initial invasion came as a direct response to a suspected truck bomb which killed at least three and took with it a huge chunk of the Kerch bridge on Saturday.
The bridge, which connects Russia to Crimea, was the dictator's pet project and has acted as a symbolic link between Russia and the annexed territory after Putin snatched it in 2014.
Though Ukraine hasn't claimed responsibility for the attack, Moscow has pinned the blame on Kyiv.
As children made their way to school and Ukrainians headed to work at around 8am on Monday morning, the bombing began.
This morning, the Ukrainian emergency services confirmed 19 people had been killed with 105 wounded throughout yesterday's assault.
After the bombing of the Crimean bridge at the weekend, Russia's hardliners were calling for blood, with some of Putin's most loyal propagandists urging him to push the button and deploy tactical nuclear strikes.
For months, hawks had been calling for Russia to turn up the terror and to target civilian infrastructure, which they hoped would pummel the Ukrainians into submission as winter loomed.
It's clear the attacks pleased some of Putin's most hardline chums as videos have emerged showing them celebrating the beleaguered tyrant doing exactly what they'd asked.
Blood-soaked Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, who had been criticising the Kremlin's approach for weeks, said he is "100% happy" after the day of violence.
Margarita Simonyan, the CEO of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group said Russia's "little response has landed" after branding the attack on the Kerch bridge a "red line".
RT state propagandist Anton Krasovsky uploaded a clip of himself wearing a cap brandishing the infamous "Z" symbol and a pair of Russian issued military pyjamas while dancing and smirking.
As the clip starts, he punches the air in victory.
Rather than a cause for celebration, many experts believe Putin's extreme response comes from a place of desperation.
The Russian despot has been backed into a corner by a series of humiliating battlefield defeats, and a mounting pressure for him to take a harder line on the defiant Ukrainian army.
Political scientist Professor Mark Galeotti told the MailOnline the ferocity of the attacks represent a "psychological shift" in the leader's mind.
Earlier in the war, Putin could have dreamed up any lie to prove Russia had won, but by annexing four Ukrainian regions last week, he can't risk losing them.
If Putin were to lose just one of the regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk or Donetsk to the Ukrainian army, he would be seen as "the Tsar who gave away Russian land instead of the strongman who restored the empire", Prof Galeotti told the MailOnline.
After extending the war into every Russian home by ordering the partial mobilisation of reservists on September 21, he has "made the catastrophic mistake of calling his own bluff."
Putin has been personally humiliated by the shocking "incompetence" of the Russian army and their repeated defeats on the battlefield, especially in the face of a modern and "highly-skilled" Ukrainian enemy.
Galeotti explained: "Battlefield failure reflects badly on Putin personally because he has built himself up as a warrior president despite having no military experience."
This was once quietly mocked among Russian warriors, who he recalled saying: "I wouldn’t want a virgin telling me what to do on my wedding night."
