[simonh]

I think it's a way of inflicting a lot of pain on the Russian population in a very public way, without actually killing lots of Russian civilians. Obviously it's in no way bloodless, but inflicting casualties is not really the aim.

Even after 4 years of war, when the conflict directly affects them, Russian civilians seem genuinely bewildered. They have difficulty comprehending why this is happening to them. They've hardly felt they've been in a war at all, for them it's mainly been an economic downturn.