Putin Escalates Attacks on Ukraine as Report Reveals Growing Fears Over How War Could End

Concern is growing that the Russia-Ukraine war may be shifting into another stage, as Kyiv faces repeated drone strikes and almost continuous air raid warnings. Increasingly, those alerts are coming during the day, extending beyond the overnight attacks that have become a grim routine for people living in the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired nearly 1,500 drones in a four-day span, with more than half of them jet-powered, and accused Moscow of trying to exhaust both Ukraine’s defenses and its civilians. The strikes have repeatedly disrupted Kyiv’s metro system and the daily commute, Reuters reported on Aug. 31, forcing residents to rush into shelters as daytime air raid alerts sound across the city.

For Ukrainians trying to reclaim a measure of normal life at the end of summer and ahead of the new school year, the renewed tempo of attacks has pushed many weary Kyiv residents back underground.

At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s warehouses and logistics network, hitting distribution centers used by major retailers and interfering with food deliveries.

Russian drone attacks on Kyiv and nearby areas continued into a fifth straight day on Monday, damaging warehouses, a retail store and residential buildings across the Kyiv region.

The strikes appear to fit into a wider Russian campaign targeting Ukraine’s commercial and logistics infrastructure. Reuters reported on Aug. 28 that Russia had struck warehouses operated by major supermarket chains, Ukraine’s largest private postal company and home-goods retailers.

Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi said 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 Outlet 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 Outlet. “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 Outlet 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.”