On October 25, Ukraine's State Emergency Service released a message saying that Russian troops used ballistic missiles that day to launch an attack on the capital city of Kiev. The attack killed one person, injured 10 others, and damaged many buildings. From the footage sent back from the scene, you can see that the urban area after the bomb exploded was directly turned into ruins, and rows of cars turned into scrap iron and burned.
Russia's sudden launch of such an attack on the capital of Ukraine at this time is obviously considered. Some of Ukraine's current aggressive postures on the battlefield and some Western policy changes towards Ukraine have prompted Russia to launch this attack. Compared with previous attacks on Kiev, Russia seems to have realized that the attack on Ukraine should destroy all the opponent's effective forces as much as possible, including some civilian facilities.
Next, let's talk about some specific considerations why Russia wants to do this.
First, weaken Ukraine's war potential
After more than three years of war, Russia knows very well that simply targeting military buildings and strongholds is no longer enough. It will also need to deal devastating blows to some energy facilities in Ukraine. And now the cold winter is coming soon. Through attacks on energy facilities in the Ukrainian capital, the foundation of people's livelihood can be destroyed as much as possible, greatly weakening Ukraine's war potential and the will of Ukrainians to resist.
Second, I want to see how much Ukraine's air defense capabilities still have
The strike method used by Russia this time is a typical mixed tactic. In addition to using the Iskander M ballistic missile, it also used geranium drones for cooperative strikes. In this way, on the one hand, we can attack the established target as much as possible. On the other hand, under this long-range, precise and saturated attack, Russia also wants to observe how much of Ukraine's air defense capabilities can play a role. At the same time, you can also test whether you have prepared in advance for this attack on Ukraine. After all, before that, some of the attacks taken by the Russian army against Ukraine would be known to Ukraine in advance, mainly because the NATO system provided relevant content to Ukraine.
Third, the response to the military action taken by Ukraine
Before the Russian army launched the attack, Ukraine increased its drone strikes on energy facilities within Russia and even bombed the dam in the Belgorod region on the Russian border, which is absolutely unacceptable for Russia, and this use of missiles and drones is also a retaliatory act for the Ukrainian army in the previous period.
The fourth is to see the West.
Because the West's aid strategy for Ukraine has undergone some changes in recent times, discussions on support for Ukraine between Europe and the United States have obviously heated up. This time, the Russian army used its long-range precision attack capabilities to attack the capital of Ukraine. This is to let Western countries, including the United States, see that Russia's offensive edge has not been thwarted, thereby achieving a deterrent effect, and intended to further curb Western countries from relaxing weapons aid to Ukraine! At the same time, it was also a warning for Ukraine, telling Zelensky not to pin its hopes on how many Western weapons it could obtain to turn the tide of war.
From these four aspects, we can understand why Russia is taking such offensive measures at this time point!
It is difficult to say how much deterrent such an offensive can be for Ukraine, because before that, Ukrainian President Zelensky also wanted the patriot interception system of the West, and in addition, he wanted cruise missiles. If Russia's next focus of offensive action was limited to this, the effect could not be much. If it could be a sustained attack on key regions and energy facilities in Ukraine, it could have a tangible deterrent effect.