This is the best summary I could come up with:

The strikes, which began on 29 December and have killed dozens of civilians, offer an early and grim taste of what may lie ahead, as Moscow signals it has the capacity for a long and brutal war in Ukraine.

While western intelligence officials once predicted that the Russian military would soon exhaust its combat capabilities and be forced to bring its offensive to a grinding halt, Moscow has managed to mobilise its industrial base, producing significantly more than before the war.

In an interview with the Economist on Tuesday, he praised his armed forces for breaking through Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea in 2023, with the country now shipping millions of tonnes of grain using a new route that hugs Ukraine’s southern coast.

Kyiv has also begun to partner with western weapons manufacturers – including in the US, UK and Germany – to advance production and trade agreements that Zelenskiy said could “launch defence projects that will be significant for the security of entire Europe”.

And while Russian troops have taken the initiative on the frontlines, Moscow has failed to make any tangible breakthrough, with its forces believed to have suffered some of the country’s biggest casualty rates so far as a result of continued “heavy but inconclusive” fighting around the Donetsk oblast town of Avdiivka.

Despite recent media reports having claimed that Putin was to open ceasefire talks, the Russian leader’s latest rhetoric is reminiscent of the most bullish period at the beginning of the war, when he demanded Ukraine’s unconditional surrender.

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