Putin Escalates Ukraine War as Fears Mount Over Its Endgame

Concerns are growing that the Russia-Ukraine war may be shifting into a new and more punishing phase, as Kyiv faces repeated drone strikes and almost continuous air raid alerts. Increasingly, the attacks are coming in broad daylight, extending beyond the overnight barrages that residents of the Ukrainian capital have come to know all too well.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired nearly 1,500 drones in just four days, with more than half of them jet-powered, accusing Moscow of trying to exhaust Ukraine and break the morale of its people. The strikes have repeatedly disrupted Kyiv’s metro network and upended daily commutes, Reuters reported Aug. 31, as residents are again being driven into shelters during daytime air raid warnings.

For Ukrainians trying to reclaim a measure of routine at summer’s end and prepare for the new school year, the renewed wave of Russian drone attacks is forcing weary Kyiv residents back underground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has simultaneously intensified attacks on Ukraine’s warehouses and logistics network, damaging distribution centers used by major retailers and disrupting food deliveries.

Russian drone attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region stretched into a fifth consecutive day Monday, with strikes damaging warehouses, a retail outlet and residential buildings in the Kyiv region.

The attacks are part of a broader campaign against Ukrainian commercial and logistics infrastructure. Reuters reported Aug. 28 that Russia had targeted warehouses belonging to major supermarket chains, Ukraine’s largest private postal company and home-goods retailers.

Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi that roughly 90% of the food logistics infrastructure operated by retail chains had been destroyed.

“As of today, roughly speaking, 90% of food logistics operated by retail chains have been destroyed, but that doesn’t mean Ukrainians will be left without food,” Vysotskyi told reporters in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform. He said retailers would shift logistics and use alternative methods of delivering food.

Ukrainian outlet TSN reported Aug. 30 that some NOVUS locations in Kyiv were short of bread, potatoes, apples and oatmeal, while supermarket chain ATB had introduced limits on how much of certain products customers could purchase.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has expanded its own campaign against Russian economic infrastructure. Ukrainian drones have targeted oil facilities as well as warehouses connected to major Russian online retailers including Wildberries and Ozon. Reuters reported Monday that a logistics hub in Yekaterinburg was also struck by a drone.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, a former USAF assistant vice chief of staff, told News Media that he believes the military momentum has increasingly shifted toward Ukraine, particularly because of Kyiv’s expanding use of long-range drones.

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“My sense is the momentum has swung in Ukraine’s favor over the last year or so,” Newton told News Media. “The Ukrainians have shown tremendous resolve and capability to push back against Russia.”

Newton pointed particularly to Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia against “energy production capability, logistics supply chains, and so forth,” calling their use of drone warfare “quite remarkable.”

He cautioned, however, that Ukraine faces a critical vulnerability as Russia intensifies its aerial campaign.

“The current challenge facing Ukraine is the shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors,” Newton said, noting that the systems are also in heavy demand elsewhere around the world.

The escalation comes amid new reporting about Putin’s calculations over how — or whether — the war can end.

The Economist reported Aug. 30, that Putin fears ending the war without Russia achieving even what he considers a minimum objective — control of all of Donbas — could threaten his position and potentially his physical safety.

“They will hang me,” Putin reportedly told people around him at some point during the war, according to an unnamed insider cited by The Economist. News Media has not independently verified Putin remarks.

The Economist also reported that dissatisfaction with the war is growing among ordinary Russians and that the mood among parts of Russia’s elite is even more pessimistic, with one source arguing that nearly five years consumed by the war represents a failure regardless of its eventual outcome.

Newton argued that the intensifying confrontation makes NATO cohesion increasingly important.

“In my view it’s more important now for NATO to remain firm perhaps at any time since the end of the Cold War,” he said. “A weakened NATO emboldens Putin and Russia not only against Ukraine but the entire alliance.”