INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia has focused near-daily attacks on the Ukrainian capital recently, sending missiles and drones overhead in the early hours and even
broad daylight.While Ukraine says it has mostly managed to intercept the barrages and has reported only two deaths from falling debris, the
strikes raise questions about the motives for such disruptive tactics in a city far from the war's main hotspots.Officials and analysts
pointed to broad goals of hindering Ukraine's planned offensive and depleting its air defenses.'Limit counteroffensive'"This is their
reaction to the preparations for a Ukrainian counteroffensive," a high-ranking Ukrainian official told AFP on condition of anonymity."The
Ukrainian advance is expected, they are getting nervous.""They are trying to limit our possibilities: exhaust air defense missiles and
divert forces," the official said, stressing the low relative cost of Shahed drones used by Russia compared to the missiles fired by
Ukraine's air defense systems and keep them busy so they cannot be redeployed elsewhere for a fresh offensive, said Oleksandr Kovalenko, a
Study of War said it "previously assessed that Russian forces began a new limited air campaign in recent months to degrade Ukrainian
meaningfully constrain potential Ukrainian counteroffensive actions," it added.Hit air defenses, PatriotUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro
Kuleba tweeted Tuesday that the attacks "aimed to deplete Ukrainian air defense."He called for "greater production and supply of air defense
systems and ammunition by EU and NATO partners."The strikes could have been intended "to see how many interceptors were left, if we could
intercept them all," said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv.The Ukrainian defense
ministry said it had repelled 29 out of 31 attack drones around and in Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday.Success rates of its air defenses
have soared since the beginning of the war.The United States has provided Ukraine with its advanced Patriot surface-to-air missile systems,
which can take out incoming missiles with minimal losses, making them a major target for Russia."The first goal is that they try to destroy
the Patriot air defense system," said Kovalenko.Earlier this month, Russia said its forces had destroyed a Patriot system in Kyiv using its
hypersonic Kinzhal (dagger) missile.United States officials said the Patriot was damaged but still operational, however.'Revenge'
attackUkrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat in televised comments described the latest strikes as in part a psychological operation.He
called them "revenge" for Russia's "failures" on the frontline, intended to please domestic audiences and "sow panic among the population
of Ukraine.""Maybe they are just engaged in terror, due to the lack of success at the front," said Bielieskov."Of course (the strikes) are
irritating, how could they not be? When they keep flying over and don't let people sleep," the anonymous official said of the strikes, while
saying that during World War II "Germans bombed London for five years and harder than the Russians bombed Kyiv, and what came of it?"Russia
hopes demoralized Ukrainians will push President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold peace talks with Russia, Kovalenko said."They don't know our
psychology very well."Zelensky not targetStrikes on Kyiv could be viewed as aimed at taking out top officials with offices there, and even
Zelensky, but analysts said this was unlikely.As long as Zelensky follows protocol and goes into a subterranean command post during air
raids, he would be safe even from Russia's Kinzhal, Bielieskov said.
