Does Putin’s shopping centre strike signal a new strategy?

A crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk has become the latest target for Russia’s missile attack. There were more than a thousand civilians’ in the mall, Volodymyr Zelensky said, ‘The mall is on fire, rescuers are fighting the fire. The number of victims is impossible to imagine’. X-22 missiles were fired from Tu-22 M3 long-range bombers, with launches made from the Kursk region, according to Ukrainian Air Force Command. The death toll so far is 13 with about 40 injured. An air raid siren sounding shortly before the blast may have allowed some to escape to safety, but rescuers are seeking to salvage bodies now.

There have long been fears that Russia would move on from its reliance on tanks and switch to missiles – flattening the parts of Ukraine that it could not invade. It would be fairly easily done, but Putin at first held back – perhaps mindful of how hard civilian casualties would be to explain in Russia.