Timing, High Rate of Putin's Mass Strikes Are 'Very Telling': NatSec Expert

Russia's flurry of strikes in various parts of Ukraine on Monday morning is potentially unsustainable, according to one national security expert.

Reports emerged from Ukraine that, around 11 a.m. local time, multiple cities and regions were hit by Russian missile strikes. Parts of the country's energy infrastructure were hit in roughly 11 cities and regions, with local media outlets reporting strikes in a total of 16 cities, including the capital city Kyiv. The strikes also resulted in a number of deaths, but the exact figure has not yet been reported.

In response to the news, Dmitri Alpertovitch, a Soviet-born investor and general security expert, said on Twitter that the strikes, while tragic, are likely not sustainable at their rate and called the current rate of strikes "telling."

"As horrible as today was for Ukraine today, the sliver of good news here is that Russia likely can't sustain this rate of missile launches," Alperovitch tweeted. "It's very telling that they have not had this rate of long range fires since the start of the war."

Alperovitch later retweeted a response to his initial post from Michael Kofman, an analyst and the head of Russia studies for the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA). Kofman noted that the rate of strikes against Ukraine has diminished over the course of the invasion and that the types of missiles deployed more recently suggest trouble for Russia's supply of weapons.

"I've seen a number of bad estimates. These continue to reflect the false certainty of numbers," Kofman wrote. "What can be said with some confidence is that the rate of strikes declined over time, and the types of missiles often used suggested dwindling stockpiles of more suitable [precision guided missiles]."

Newsweek reached out to Alperovitch for comment.

Alperovitch's comments echoed a similar sentiment shared by Mikhail Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Podolyak wrote on Telegram that the Monday attacks indicated that Russia is behaving like a "wounded beast."

"Large-scale rocket attacks on the centers of Ukrainian cities are evidence of the terrorist nature of the Russian regime," Podolyak wrote. "The mask is off: this is the targeted mass killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure...This is, unquestionably, the dying convulsions of a wounded beast. They can't fight on the battlefield, and so they hit civilians with rockets."

The missile strikes in Ukraine came only two days after an explosion rocked a strategically vital bridge that connects the Russian mainland to the annexed province of Crimea, causing parts of it to collapse. While Ukraine has not claimed credit for the explosion, several government officials celebrated the incident on social media, while Russian President Vladimir Putin called it an instance of terrorism.