Attacks inside Russia raise questions about next phase of Ukraine war
Geoff Bennett:
Meantime, Moscow's military has escalated its aerial assault on Ukraine, this month launching more than 20 waves of attacks on the capital, Kyiv.
That carried into today, as residents took shelter in Kyiv's metro, as Ukraine fended off a sixth straight day of bombardments.
For more on the attacks inside Russia, why they're happening and who is conducting them, we turn to Jennifer Cafarella , national security fellow at the Institute for the Study of War.
Thank you for being with us.
And, Jennifer, when you look at these attacks, what do you see? And what do you think are the objectives of the groups that are responsible for them?
Jennifer Cafarella , Institute for the Study of War: So there are clearly two separate lines of effort, both of which are applying pressure within Russia, that does have the potential to make conditions easier for the Ukrainian armed forces as they launch their major counteroffensive, which has not yet begun.
The first line of effort or these cross-border raids. What's most remarkable about them is actually the scale to which the Russians are panicking and the scale to which it is dominating these narratives, which is much larger than the actual raids taking place on the ground, which are quite small and opportunistic.
The second line of effort is the deep strikes that it appears the Ukrainians are doing to target supply lines, things like oil depots, and other elements of the resupply that the Russian forces in Ukraine are going to need in order to mount their defense. That second line of effort is much more robust and much more directly supportive of whatever the Ukrainian armed forces are preparing for their next move.
Source: PBS NewsHour
