A foreign relations expert says the appointment of a new general to lead the Russian war effort in Ukraine is a "worrying sign that Putin is doubling down" under pressure.
It comes after multiple Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, were targeted by missiles yesterday following an earlier explosion that damaged a span of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia with the Crimean peninsula.
Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Breakfast this morning: "We're certainly at a point where the temperature is rising, tension is building.
"The Ukrainians have taken a major step in blowing up a span of the Kerch Bridge...this is a real blow and I think what we're seeing here is a lot of pressure on Putin to respond in a very significant way, and he appears to have chosen to attack almost a dozen cities."
Ukraine have not officially claimed responsibility for the blast.
Kupchan added that the attacks on city centres were driven in part by the types of missiles available to Russia, with only a limited amount of precision-guided weapons that could be used for more targeted strikes available to them.
"Secondly, I think Putin needs to show that he's responding in a way that is proportional to what he sees as the attacks that have taken place against Russia...I think Putin is under a lot of domestic pressure."
And Kupchan said the recent appointment of General Sergei Surovikin to take over command of the campaign in Ukraine reflected this.
Surovikin was put in charge of all Russian forces in Ukraine two days before Monday's bombardment.
"He has served in Afghanistan, in Chechnya, in Syria. In all of these cases, he has a reputation for behaviour that has in fact been reckless and entailed the illegal killings of civilians, so I think that this is a worrying sign that Putin is doubling down.
"He is not responding to the successful Ukrainian offensives by looking for a diplomatic solution, he seems to be ready to escalate militarily. We may be looking at a very long conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
"We're clearly entering a newly dangerous period in this conflict."
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