Even since air warfare was invented, with the first hot air balloons dropping bombs out of the gondola, wholesale bombing of civilians has never worked, he's right about that part. Under incredible pressure, people will rally around the worst governments.
Right now, Ukraine is giving the big bully a black eye. Demonstrating that they can hit targets inside Russia is a good thing, it's making civilians realize big daddy Putin is not keeping them safe, and that's one of his main jobs. My best guess says the air defense failure is both training and equipment, Ukraine having destroyed much of what was sent in early in the war that had to be replaced by equipment that was protecting Russia. Destroyed with the equipment were the people who were trained how to use it and they're rushing the training on replacement equipment along with what they're now going to have to send to western Russia.
Ukraine has been incredibly smart in not announcing responsibility for the attacks or how they were carried out, keeping the Russians guessing and chasing their own tails while they stew over what gets hit next.
Giving the bully a black eye is incredibly important, it tells him he can get hurt, too, and that maybe he needs to pick easier targets.
At this point, whatever those strikes are (missiles, drones, sabotage), even a rare strike that goes off target and hits a civilian target is not going to cause the whole country to rally around Putin more than the propaganda machine already has them doing so via pure bullshit because it is obviously not a program of wholesale destruction of civilian targets. That's Russia's strategy and it doesn't work.
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