For Russia and Ukraine, an Escalating Spiral With No End in Sight
New York Times · LC · trust 41/100
Each side is using missiles and drones to try to pound the other into giving up, breeding ceaseless human suffering. But there is no sign that either country’s determination will weaken.
Listen · 8:51 min Share full article 364 After an attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, late last month. Credit... Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters By Kim Barker Oleksandra Mykolyshyn and Ivan Nechepurenko
Kim Barker and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine, in cities far from the front line, are waging an intensifying tit-for-tat air war that is bringing more pain to the populations of both countries than at any other point since the early months of the full-scale war launched by Moscow in 2022.
With the front largely frozen, each side is using growing arsenals of missiles and drones to exact vengeance and to try to pummel the other into submission. In the most recent example, Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, has been under constant bombardment from Russian drones over the past few days, tormenting residents with nearly continual air-raid alerts.
Still, there is no evidence that the escalation will weaken either country’s determination to fight on. Human suffering will only grow this winter, analysts say, as both Russia and Ukraine seek leverage in U.S.-backed settlement negotiations that are expected to resume after achieving little this year.
Ukraine can’t give up, and Russia doesn’t want to, analysts say.
“It’s a question of how much pain can Russia take compared to Ukraine — and Russia can take a lot of pain,” said Rob Lee, a military expert at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute who travels frequently to the front line.
This new period of eye-for-an-eye assaults accelerated in late June, when Ukraine opened a 40-day campaign against Russia that President Volodymyr Zelensky said was aimed at “compelling it to end the war.”
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