Will Putin's Mass Strikes Slow Ukraine's Counteroffensive? Experts Weigh in

Russia's artillery attacks on Kyiv on Monday morning that left multiple regions of the country without electricity and some without water could derail Ukraine's counteroffensive if similar attacks continue to occur, policy experts told Newsweek.

Explosions impacted at least 14 cities across Ukraine, causing an unknown amount of casualties. Civilians took cover inside metro stations being used as bomb shelters, singing in unison for the protection of their country as the war approaches the eight-month mark.

Continued attacks could inhibit Ukraine's progress along the Ukraine-Russia border.

"Everything depends on whether these are one-off strikes or whether Russia can sustain them, and continue to target power, water and transport infrastructure," Nikolas Gvosdev, Russian-American professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and senior fellow at Carnegie Council, told Newsweek. "Sustained damage inhibits Ukraine's ability to resupply and reinforce. Add to this possible data and communications outages and the forward momentum can certainly be slowed down."

The attacks also highlight the rhetoric of nuclear proliferation, he added, in that the West's focus on Russia's nuclear threats "may have also signaled that as long as nuclear weapons are not used," its threshold for intervention is not met.

"Clearly we are seeing [an] escalation of attacks but below the nuclear threshold in this latest round," he said.

Russia's newest attacks come as its Ministry of Defense is moving forward with the purchase of at least 10 unmanned underwater vehicles, potentially ushering in a new strategy as part of its "special operation" that began with the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow and manager of the Ukraine Forum in the Russia and Eurasia program at the independent policy institute Chatham House, previously told Newsweek that Russia knows "that [the use of] nuclear weapons is more powerful as a threat."

Ukraine's counteroffensive has caused Russia to lose positioning and sway its domestic mood of the war to one of increased anxiety.

Lutsevych said Monday that the strikes will not impact Ukraine's military campaign, as Russians destroyed more than 10 civilian energy facilities but not military sites—which "is not a new tactic" and has been done previously in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Vinnytsia.

"Today, the scale is larger; it covers all of Ukraine from Lviv to Dnipro," she said. "It aims to terrorize the population, ignite [a] new refugee crisis in Europe, sow fear with the goal to break resolve. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants Ukrainians to believe they simply cannot win this war of attrition."

On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned Russia's "horrific & indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure." He tweeted that NATO would "continue supporting the brave Ukrainian people to fight back against the Kremlin's aggression for as long as it takes."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that "Russia's attacks are yet another reminder that its war against Ukraine presents a profound moral issue."

"No person of conscience—and no country of principle—could be unmoved by the devastation of these horrors," Blinken said. "Ukraine, like every other country around the world, has the right to choose its own future and live peacefully inside its own internationally recognized borders."

Lutsevych believes Putin's strategic moves are further galvanizing Ukrainians and their allies.

"Ukrainians are no longer afraid of Russia and see this type of attack as a sign of despair," Lutsevych said. "Putin is not achieving any of his political goals of this war and with each day his chances are further melting away.

"Ukraine is united, the West stands by Kyiv. There is clarity that the world in which Putin prevails is a dystopia nobody wants to live in."