Ukraine surveys damage after missile strikes, but Russia still losing on frontline

Ukraine has witnessed nothing on this terrifying scale since the start of the war. By the time the air raid sirens fell silent, the country’s defence ministry reported that 75 missiles had been launched by the Russians. They claim to have intercepted more than half – but 16 locations, including ten cities, were hit. So as well as retaliation by Vladimir Putin for the weekend attack on the Kerch Bridge in Crimea – a project in which he has invested a great deal of personal prestige as well as one that carries vital supplies to his armies in the south - this counts as a dramatic escalation. So far, no Russian effort to intimidate Ukraine’s civilian population has succeeded in damaging their will to resist and fight on.

John Ray reports from Kyiv on an escalation in the conflict in Ukraine

But Putin is hoping to impress an important domestic audience - the ultra nationalists who dominate the "war talk shows" on TV. They are the Kremlin’s cheerleaders – turned increasingly vocal critics of the war's conduct.

An idea, which sounds fanciful for anyone on the receiving end of Russia’s invasion, has caught hold; that Moscow’s military has been fighting with one hand tied behind its back. So as Ukraine bleeds today, they will celebrate. But none of this changes what has been happening on the front line. And there, Russia is still losing.

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