Russian Bombing Reveals Moscow's Weakness

 Moscow's retaliation for the Ukrainian invasion of Russian territory took the form of air strikes on fifteen provinces of Kiev. At least 17 Russian strategic bombers were involved in the air offensive, which had as its main objective that of hitting the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The estimate of the Russian missiles used exceeds two hundred, which targeted the cities and surrounding territories of Lviv, Dnipro, Cherkassy and Kiev. The new damage caused to energy infrastructure must be added to an already difficult situation in this sector, targeted as a strategic target in view of the winter season. According to some analysts, the large-scale increase in bombings would be a response to the invasion of Russian territory, and in part Moscow's action can also be read in this way, but it is undoubted that the strategy is part of the desire to hit the Ukrainian energy system, to make the situation more difficult for the population; in any case, as the Ukrainian president pointed out, the need to eliminate restrictions on Western weapons is now urgent. An adequate defense cannot be organized without hitting the supply depots that the Russian army uses on its own territory, interrupting the supply lines appears to be the best preventive defense. The Ukrainian request, addressed above all to France, the United Kingdom and the United States, appears to be justified by the preponderance of the Russian air force, which, at the moment, is the only factor capable of making the difference. Stopping Moscow's incursions into Ukrainian skies and the protection provided from above to the Russian forces occupying Ukrainian territories would represent the solution capable of reversing the forces of the conflict and arriving at possible negotiations in a very different way for Kiev. If we analyze what has been defined as the Russian response to the invasion of its territory, the first legitimate question to ask is why Moscow has not chosen to carry out an equivalent action in the province of Kursk against the Ukrainian occupying forces and retake its territory. On the ground, the advance of more experienced Ukrainian soldiers against Russian conscripts was quite easy and led to the conquest of about a thousand square kilometers, with twenty-eight inhabited centers, which forced the Russian authorities to evacuate about 121,000 civilians. A situation that had not occurred since the Second World War, however, the Kremlin's choice was to maintain positions in Donbass, without moving more qualified soldiers to reconquer the lost ground, and even the choice to use bombing directly in Ukraine raises some doubts. The questions concern the capacity of Russian troops to mobilize, meaning selected and trained soldiers, which seems to have reached the end of their availability, as well as the arsenals of missiles and bombing devices, on which a choice had to be made that left out the occupied territories of the Kursk province. The opportunity for the West, if it wants to have any chance of reaching negotiations, seems to have to be exploited and this can only be done with an increase in military supplies, especially in the anti-aircraft sector, and with the end of the restriction of the use of Western weapons against Moscow's territory. What must be passed, both among Western governments and parliaments, is the idea that the use of Western weapons used only on Ukrainian territory halves their effectiveness, also becoming a useless economic waste. The concept of defensive war does not imply the use of weapons only on the territory to be defended, but also on the territories from which the attacks come, even if these are under another sovereignty. At the moment Western rules favor Moscow, which, it must be remembered, is the entity that has broken every rule of international law, and for this very reason must be stopped as soon as possible by making it as harmless as possible. The Kremlin's forces appear tired and vulnerable, as demonstrated by the Ukrainian maneuver in the province of Kursk and are based mainly on air dominance; By breaking this predominance, Russia will have to retreat and sit at the negotiating table, certainly not from a position of strength. The West has the duty to help Ukraine because that is the best help to itself.