Why Russia keeps terrorizing Ukrainian civilians

From the Independent:

"Inside Putin’s campaign of terror in Kyiv: Why Russia keeps bombarding the capital 

Russia has amplified its attacks on Ukraine despite insistence it is open to peace talks

James C. Reynolds & Steffie Banatvala,

 

14 November 2025

Russia launched a blistering assault on Ukraine overnight, killing at least six people and injuring 35. Some 430 drones and 18 missiles targeted the country, Ukraine’s president said, calling the strikes a deliberate and calculated attack “aimed at causing maximum harm to people and civilian infrastructure”.

Ukraine’s air force said most of the drones and missiles were shot down, but officials said falling debris and fires damaged high-rise apartments, a school, a medical facility and administrative buildings across nine districts in the city of about three million.

"At that moment you don't know what to do first: save yourself, your child, or run to help people, because so many people were screaming and needed help," said Anastasia, 29, whose apartment block was hit.

The attacks came just two days after Russia’s foreign ministry indicated it was ready to resume direct talks with Ukraine on ending the war in Istanbul. An official told TASS the “ball is in Ukraine’s court”.

Russia continues to escalate its strikes on Ukraine while coordinating its messaging to present a show of good faith to the United States. Nearly four years since the invasion, the Kremlin maintains its maximalist designs on Ukraine...

Russia has waged a devastating aerial campaign against Ukraine since its all-out invasion of its neighbour nearly four years ago. US-led diplomatic efforts this year to stop the fighting have so far come to nothing...

Mariia Kalchenko said it was a miracle she survived after her building was hit. "I didn't hear anything, I just realised that my hair was on fire," the 46-year-old volunteer rescue dog handler said.

In the Odesa region, Russian drones struck a busy street on market day in Chornomorsk, killing two people and injuring 11 others, including a 19-month-old girl, regional military administration chief Oleh Kiper said.

Moscow denies targeting civilian areas, with the Russian Defense Ministry saying Friday it carried out an overnight strike on Ukraine's "military-industrial and energy facilities."

Analysts nevertheless accuse Russia of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in order to wound morale.

Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that the “systematic” targeting of civilian infrastructure was a “central element” of Russia’s strategy, “designed to terrorise the Ukrainian population and erode public morale”.

“The underlying calculation is that a war-weary society subjected to sustained attacks might exert pressure on the government to accept almost any settlement that promises an end to hostilities,” she told The Independent.

“Thus far, however, this strategy has proven ineffective, as Ukrainians have demonstrated remarkable resilience and determination in the face of ongoing aggression.”...

Keir Giles, a fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, told The Independent that Moscow’s attacks are designed to “cause the maximum possible misery and suffering among the civilian population”.

“That’s the principle we saw applied in Syria, in Chechnya and in countless others of Moscow’s wars dating back decades and centuries,” he said.

Mr Giles said Ukraine was “the victim of Russia’s attempts to demoralise its victims through inhumanity.

“That’s the reason for attacks on maternity hospitals, and nurseries, targeting the most vulnerable in society, as well as for the systematic torture and starvation of Ukrainian military and civilian captives – not for any objective purpose other than deliberate and demonstrative cruelty.”

These attacks continue despite Russia’s insistence that it is open to talks moving towards a ceasefire..."