throwawayidknything t1_j24gg10 wrote
Reply to comment by Regularguy10369 in Russian missile attack on Kyiv Oblast: 21 houses, hospital and cars damaged by HarakenQQ
Why would they waste their missiles on civilian targets?
Mackem101 t1_j24j6i3 wrote
Terror, they want the Ukrainian people to pressure Zelensky to surrender in an attempt to save Ukrainian lives.
Unfortunately for Putin, it's created a 'fuck you' mentality instead.
Even if Russia eventually 'win', it will become an insurgent filled hellhole for Russian troops and politicians.
Vineyard_ t1_j24soga wrote
Strategic bombing famously never works if the goal is to demoralize the population into surrender, and only works if the bombing is sustained and constant if the goal is to damage war production capacity.
In the case of Ukraine, that second point isn't even relevant because the production that keeps Ukraine in this war isn't happening in Ukraine.
It's also much easier for NATO governments to justify providing more assistance to Ukraine if Russia indiscriminately murders civilians, making this whole thing an even worse idea than it normally is.
Skyrick t1_j267b7w wrote
People do it for the same reason we still torture people. It’s appeal is how simple the logic is behind it. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t work. The concept of why it should work is simple enough that people will continue to try it for all of eternity.
szReyn t1_j26yrz0 wrote
Throwing dead cows into a sieged city could work. Citizens trapped inside walls and being forced to deal with the disease, inability to bring in more food, and rampant disease. It might not make them surrender, but it could passively kill enough they could no longer defend.
But in the modern day this stands no chance of working. The conditions don't exist for that possibility l. Instead it depletes your reserves, emboldens your enemy, and makes them fight harder.
And in this case it doesn't even reduce your enemies war capacity. Ukraine is being fed their war material. They don't need anywhere near as much local production. On the other hand, no one is feeding Russia any significant amount of war material and cannot produce it as fast as they are using/losing it.
Russia is still fighting as if it's the 1600's. And when you look at their history? It's really no surprise. They've been fucked since the black death.
acebandaged t1_j250wk7 wrote
Because the goal isn't only to demilitarize and absorb Ukraine, it's also to remove ethnic Ukranians and replace them with Russians. The genocide is the primary goal, the military action is just a part of that plan.
MGMAX t1_j2525h2 wrote
Which is stupid in it's own right, it's like if China killed every single Taiwanese and annexed the island. Yeah, you got the land, but it's absolutely worthless now without people who lived there and everyone hates you.
sold_snek t1_j255tp9 wrote
But the next generation will hate less. The one after even less so. For an entire country, it's a long-term win.
Shuber-Fuber t1_j26zqwt wrote
Assuming your country survives the generation and didn't break apart like the Soviet Union.
SidewaysFancyPrance t1_j250ofp wrote
This is pure terrorism, which benefits Russia in many ways. Strategically, it diverts a lot of Ukrainian resources towards protecting and evacuating civilians from areas where they should be pretty safe, away from the front lines. Russia wants to disrupt Ukraine's advantages on the battlefield (better training, better equipment, higher morale, stronger will to fight) by keeping them spread thinly and reacting to civilian catastrophes.
Attacking civilian populations is a war crime for good reason: it's effective and is a cheap/obvious strategy for anyone who does not care if the enemy population lives or dies. It's for truly evil people.
Jerthy t1_j253cun wrote
Standart terror tactics seen in Chechnya and Syria and also the fact that Russian intel is dogshit and can't find any military targets past first week of war where they landed hits on some of the static military infrastructure.
[deleted] t1_j252i2k wrote
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thestoryteller69 t1_j27errc wrote
Psychologically it's supposedly to terrorise Ukraine into surrender. Militarily it's to make them devote more resources to clearing the damage, to force Ukraine to move anti missile batteries away from the front lines and into cities and to make Ukraine use up its missiles on defence as well. What most commentators feel is the primary reason, though, is that the war is going so badly for Russia that nationalist groups in Russia are criticising the government and the military. Destroying civilian targets is a way for Russia to show those nationalists that it's doing something successfully instead of just getting its butt kicked on the front lines.
pinetreesgreen t1_j25owc4 wrote
Bc they want to make the country unlivable so folks leave. Also, bc they like killing Ukrainians.
rufus148 t1_j24uq77 wrote
They don't. Their missiles is both less accurate and by now every signal get jammed. They would rather blow up a substation or power infrastructure and make 15000 suffer than blow a random person up.
Or missile gets blown up on its way and crash land on a house
cyferhax t1_j24y6w5 wrote
Umm their repeated targeting of schools and hospitals, along with infrastructure seems to disprove that.
This is also why they will lose. Ukraine is going after targets that weaken Russia's ability to attack them.
Russia is going after civilians with their missiles and rockets. All this is doing is pissing the Ukrainian people off, and not impacting their ability to fight back against the invaders.
Russia is a terrorist state. Period. Run by a Mafia; and all they have to offer, besides gas and oil, is blood and death.
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