Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian civilians are nothing new. But they are getting more sophisticated and threaten to tip the war in Russia’s favour for almost the first time. The aim is to break, at long last, the remarkable resilience and spirit of the Ukrainian people. The Kremlin hopes that, if it succeeds in that, then not only will Russia have secured an imperial expansion; but the West will have lost a strategic ally which is even more valuable than it was when the conflict began.
Tens of thousands of Russian ballistic missiles have been lobbed at apartment blocks and other targets in Ukraine more or less indiscriminately for six years. These are mighty weapons, intended to fight Nato’s armies in a third world war, not to pummel undefended Ukrainian towns. They, and the newer Russian-Iranian drones, have accounted for the great majority of the 16,874 Ukrainian civilians killed (according to the United Nations’ figures) since President Putin’s “special military operation” began in February 2022. That death toll includes 820 children, with 51,173 injured, of which 3,126 are children. The kidnapping and torture of captured Ukrainians adds to the litany of Russian war crimes.
