Russia’s terror tactics include threat of thermobaric weapons, dumb bombs and Chechens

Edward Arnold, a research fellow at the respected Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said Russia was targeting Ukrainian civilians to break the government. “Their targeting and coordination, especially in terms of the use of airpower to support ground units, is poor. Therefore, we have seen the heavier use of artillery, rockets and non-precision ‘dumb’ munitions from the air that has contributed to civilian casualties.” He added: “The Russian way of warfare makes use of terror to achieve political and military objectives and we have seen this tactic used in Grozny, Aleppo and Homs previously, and are now seeing it in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol amongst others. “The Russians are trying to break the Ukrainian will to fight, which has been decisive to the resistance thus far, by targeting President Zelensky as the source of Ukrainian morale, and to target civilians to force the Ukrainian government and military to submit to Russian will. Thus far, neither of these objectives has been successful.”