The Kremlin’s new strategy: it has been revealed which city Putin has chosen as his main target for 2026
8 June 20:22
The Russian Federation has radically changed its strategy for waging war against Ukraine. Unable to seize the initiative on the battlefield, Vladimir Putin has shifted the main thrust of his offensive deep into Ukrainian territory, making the capital—Kyiv—his key target. While Moscow is testing new missile weapons on Ukrainians, Kyiv is offering a direct way out of the bloody stalemate. What lies behind the current massive attacks on Ukraine and how the internal crisis in Russia is influencing this—in an analysis
Weekly shelling: Kyiv as the main “demoralizer”
The latest strikes on the Ukrainian capital clearly indicate that Russia has definitively abandoned its former military logic. This is noted in a commentary
According to her, the Kremlin is currently testing a new tactic to the fullest extent, which can be described as a strategy of escalation and terror in the rear.
“Previously, if they escalated as much as possible on the front lines—we saw this in 2022–2024—then in 2025, what was happening behind the lines began. And this became particularly evident in 2026,” Pokrovshchuk emphasizes.
The expert draws attention to a dangerous trend: the intervals between massive attacks on Ukrainian cities are rapidly shrinking. Whereas Russia previously needed a pause of two to two and a half weeks, in 2026, barely a week passes between shelling incidents. The capital feels this pressure particularly acutely, having already been struck twice since the start of the year by the Kremlin’s latest “Oreshnik” ballistic missiles.
“Why the capital specifically? Because in every country, the capital is always the main factor in demoralizing society when it suffers from such terrorist shelling,” explains Lyudmila Pokrovshchuk.
Why Putin is striking the rear: fear of September
The shift to outright terrorism against the civilian population and the capital is not a sign of strength, but an attempt to conceal the Russian Federation’s systemic problems. Military analysts and the Ukrainian Armed Forces command agree on one thing: the strategic initiative on the front lines currently remains with Ukraine. Since Putin’s defense ministers and generals (Belousov, Gerasimov) cannot secure breakthroughs on the battlefield, the dictator is issuing personal orders to destroy the rear.
For Putin, 2026 has become the year when the “window of opportunity” is rapidly closing due to internal pressure within Russia itself. Lyudmyla Pokrovshchuk highlights two factors.
- The collapse of the social contract: The war that Russians were used to seeing on TV has come into their homes. Long-range strikes by Ukrainian drones on Russian oil refineries and logistics facilities have led to gasoline shortages and skyrocketing prices. Russians have felt the consequences of Putin’s ambitions firsthand, and people are starting to ask uncomfortable questions in their living rooms.
- The September Election Factor: Elections are scheduled to take place in Russia in September 2026. It is critically important for Putin to demonstrate to the electorate at least some semblance of a victory or a “tough response.”
“Putin has a narrow window of opportunity—specifically 2026—when he needs to somehow respond to the electorate, to the Russians… He needs to constantly show that he is delivering such a ‘response’ to Ukraine’s strikes on their oil refineries and logistics facilities. In other words, to provide a response within Russia, he needs to escalate the situation here,” Lyudmila Pokrovshchuk concludes.
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It was precisely in the midst of this bloody “rear strategy” that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a bold public move. On June 4, he published an Open Letter to the President of the Russian Federation, in which he directly acknowledged the new reality: Russia has lost the initiative, has become dependent on North Korea and China, and its army is losing more than 30,000 soldiers killed and wounded every month.
Zelenskyy offered Putin a pragmatic way out—to “not be afraid to end the war” and sit down at the table for honest bilateral negotiations on neutral territory, with the U.S. and Europe serving as security guarantors.
Moscow’s reaction to this sweeping offer was as dry and predictable as possible. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin had been briefed on the letter but refused to disclose any details or the dictator’s reaction.
Thus, while Ukraine demonstrates to the world its readiness for a diplomatic end to the war along the contact line, the Kremlin, cornered by internal problems and the September elections, will continue to cling to its only new tactic—weekly terrorist attacks on Kyiv. However, the aggressor’s resources are running out, and this escalation in the rear is merely an attempt to delay the inevitable end.
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