Russia launches 57 airstrikes on Kyiv and Lviv as Ukraine targets Crimea | Ukraine War

Sean, what do we know so far about this latest round of

airstrikes

in particular? Yes, good afternoon, Simon, yes, this particular round from Russia was about 57 joint missile and drone mixes, as you say, targeting range from the city of Kev, their explosions inside Lviv. near you, it wasn't actually in the city, it was actually in the surrounding area. It largely appeared to be targeting critical national infrastructure, particularly around energy, now Ukraine claims they have shot down many of the missiles 18 of 29 and 25 of the 28. drones, but inevitably with that number many managed to get through and even those that they knocked down, the debris would have caused some damage to the ground.

What's really interesting about this is the Russian strategy, although last year and the year before that, the Russians attacked Ukrainian infrastructure. uh, right at the beginning of winter to try to make life as miserable as possible for Ukrainians in their freezing winter. We're seeing some of the evidence of keev on the ground here from ke footage um, but actually right now, why? Are they carrying out the attacks in March? It's the end of winter. It seems more and more likely. Does Putin now feel emboldened? He has another six-year term. He knows that the West is not supplying the weapons Ukraine needs, particularly air defense missiles.

Russia piles up taxes on cities the more it drains Ukraine's air defense systems, and of course Russia also knows that its own defense industrial base is actually delivering a sustainable supply of missiles and that it's also getting them from Iran, as well. that everyone I think this is an absolutely measured attack by Russia, which is simply increasing the pressure on Ukraine, yes, and we are seeing those photos of the missiles landing. The Polish Armed Forces say one of the Russian Miss missiles actually passed through Polish airspace. How dangerous could it be? That's possibly, yeah, one we heard reports that the polers identified that a missile passed through their airspace and that's a NATO country, so that's incredibly dangerous now apparently it was only 39 seconds in the airspace. , but that's not really the point people expect.

For these high-tech weapons to be 100% accurate, they are not common, they can be 80 or 90% if something goes wrong and they fall from the sky. Imagine if that Russian missile had hit a Polish city and caused some damage. impact it would have had now This is not the first time that Russian missiles have crossed NATO airspace, certainly fleetingly. I'm sure it won't be the last, but it just goes to show the risks involved when Russia carries out this campaign particularly so close to NATO okay and, looking the other way too, there have now been reports that Ukraine has been carrying out carried out attacks against Crimea.

What's the latest news? This is interesting because it seems to be some sort of continuous and slight change in the Ukrainians' strategy. They claim that they have been attacking the Black Sea Fleet even more, but in the port of Sevastopol, near you, they claim that they attacked two landing ships, also the commander's control configuration and also some of the Russian infrastructure, now all the Russians. what they have done it is said that they have shot down 10 Ukrainian drones, that is what they do and they have not claimed any damage, but in the past they have often caused a lot of damage again, why is Ukraine doing it?

They are almost certainly on the defensive in the Donbass right now despite the weather, Russia is suffering heavy casualties, but they are advancing on the battlefield and there is an opinion that actually, if Ukraine allows them, they will simply It facilitates them, it takes their strength. Russian casualties, but focus the attack on Crimea, not that Ukraine will be able to take Crimea, but if they endanger the port of Sevastopol because the Black Sea Fleet has now been pushed east, it could be that Ukraine with its attacks with drones with their missile attacks and potentially amphibious attacks they could begin to threaten Crimea and if they did that, Crimea in particular Sevastopol is what the Westwoods call a center of gravity, it is the one thing that Putin will not want to lose and there is the possibility that if Ukraine could put enough pressure on Crimea and it could change President Putin's calculus about how far he decides to negotiate because he won't want to lose Crimea.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. It's a big obstacle to negotiations, isn't it, Sean. thank you