The war has become a war for a domestic audience consumption for Russia and for domestic infighting. It is no longer about Ukraine, but PR management and control at home.
The missiles sent today serve no strategic purpose. If anything all they do is deepen Ukrainian resolve and a sense that they have no choice but to fight on.
They satisfy Putin's desire for revenge and give some red meat to the masses of Russians who still support him, but that's it.
These are weapons that could have been targeted at strategic points, but few look to have been particularly aimed at strategic points. There have been a few hits like taking out power in Lviv but nothing that appears noteworthy or is so big the Ukrainians have no choice but to admit to.
This is the only response Russia has at this point. It feels it must do something to keep up appearances but its not meaningful.
It hasn't the capability nor capacity to launch a counter attack. It's army has peaked and has lost momentum whilst Ukraine is still gathering steam.
It will increasingly struggle with basic supplies to its front lines.
The hot air and threats are that. The worst losses are being hidden from view but are increasingly hard to suppress.
The attack on the bridge is being compared to the lost of the Moskva as the biggest losses of face. Remember the official line on the Moskva? Long forgotten with no one bothering to stick to the script anymore.
Weirdly Putin has done a meeting with his governors today and it's not even been mentioned.
Kamil Galeev made the point that escalate to deescalate makes sense in the context of media management for the domestic audience. And that clearly must be the fear now.
The speech by the defence minister of Ukraine fits into that neatly. I note that the US embassy is again encouraging all citizens to leave as soon as they think its safe to do so, today. They are anticipating an escalation in attacks on civilians of some description - not necessarily nukes. And if China is now stepping in, you have to presume there is concerns rising there about Russian attitudes.
I don't think we are at panic stations still. Rising concerns yes.
Note stuff like this
Julia Davis AT juliadavisnews
More genocidal brainstorming in the Russian media: Expert says that destroying all bridges in Ukraine is not feasible. He proposes demolishing the energy infrastructure in time for winter, causing a massive humanitarian crisis. He argues that China and India would not care.
China saying something, is relevant to domestic attitudes... not because it thinks nukes will definitely happen and are unavoidable at this point.