Despite brutally bombing Ukraine in a renewed campaign Vladimir Putin is becoming increasingly desperate and his forces are still losing on the battlefield, an expert has claimed.
James Rushton, an independent foreign policy and security analyst, told the Mirror that the Kremlin’s troops are “just killing civilians because they can and they are militarily incompetent”.
Russian President Putin launched a missile and drone barrage on a number of Ukrainian cities including its capital Kyiv on Monday, sending children walking to school running to bomb shelters.
The strikes were some of the deadliest since the start of the war in February and Russia may have violated principles under international humanitarian law, a spokesperson for the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
But Mr Rushton says the Ukrainians “are still beating the Russians out of their country” and clawing back territory “pretty much every day”.
Sir Jeremy Fleming, the head of the UK's GCHQ intelligence agency, ratified this and told the BBC that Russia is running short of weapons, allies and troops with Putin's regime becoming increasingly desperate.
Speaking from Kyiv on the day of the attacks, Mr Rushton said they passed a street full of bodybags at a bus stop.
Civilians were very shocked and angry, he continued, but Russian aggression will not make them give up or cower in fear.
“The Ukrainian army is absolutely annihilating and humiliating the Russians and this is their response,” he continued.
In televised remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had launched long-range missile attacks against Ukraine in retaliation for an attack on the Kerch Bridge — a key artery between occupied and mainland Ukraine.
A key difference is that the Kerch Bridge is a military target, while Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of 84 cruise missiles and 24 drones attacked civilians and civilian infrastructure — killing at least 14 and injuring 97 more.
Russian artillery has caused brutal death and destruction in cities across Ukraine but they have achieved little strategically other than giving Ukrainians more gumption to keep fighting.
“If anything this will harden resolve”, Mr Rushton continued, “the Blitz didn't break British morale during the Second World War.”
In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have been making impressive headway in forcing the Russian advance to retreat.
While the attacks were successful in shattering a sense of normality that had resumed in cities following heavy bombardment in the early months of the war, they achieved little else militarily. Ukrainian troops have still got hold of thousands of square miles of Russian-occupied territory.
“This has no military significance at all. This is just killing civilians because you can kill civilians because you're militarily incompetent and you have no answer.”
Sir Jeremy also said Moscow's top brass are clearly "worried about the state of their military machine", adding "the word I have used is desperate and we can see that desperation at many levels inside Russian society and inside the Russian military machine".
Out of 83 Russian (and Iranian imported) missiles fired, 45 were shot down which one military pundit says shows the strength of Ukrainian air defences.
They wrote on Twitter : “If you calculate that many Russian missiles, which slipped through the defence, missed their target… you know how worthless that spectacle was.”
But Mr Rushton says the Russian attack shows that Ukraine needs more and better air defence systems.
Following the attack, Germany confirmed it was sending new systems but Ukraine is seeking more advanced air defence and anti-missile systems to counter any repeat of the barrage launched on Monday.
