According to De Kruif, the purpose of Russia’s attacks is to ‘reduce the morale of the population’ and to ‘activate refugee flows’. He sees it reflected in the latest missile attacks. “Russia is mainly trying to bring down the Ukrainian energy system.”
Russia itself says the latest attacks are retaliation for attacks on two Russian villages. But De Kruid doesn’t believe it much. “We don’t even have evidence that those attacks took place on Russian soil. And then again: this is not proportional. If something happens and then you retaliate with 80 missiles and cruise missiles, which are mostly fired at civilian targets, then that’s not in line with each other.’
Anti-aircraft
Which, according to De Kruif, is also a goal of Russia with the attacks: to ‘saturate’ the Ukrainian air defenses. With this, Russia can attempt to land most of the missiles on its target. That campaign is actually still going on, but now they label it ‘punishment’.’