The Russian Federation needs a reason for mobilization, both moral and legal. People are tired of war and Putin is returning to its favorite method, which is terror. The Russian Defense Ministry has accused Ukraine of nighttime missile strikes on a residential area of Russian city of Belgorod.
The bombing of Belgorod is undoubtedly the work of Russia. In the buildings of Belgorod, which suffered from shelling, fragments of the Russian surface-to-air missile system «Pantsir-S1» got stuck. Ukraine has never had such equipment in its arsenal.
During the shelling of Belgorod and other Russian cities near the border with Ukraine, for some reason, there is always no air raid siren, even taking into account the different levels of threat that have long been introduced.
In Ukraine, for example, as soon as missile launches from the territory of the Russian Federation or aircraft takeoff from Russian airfields are recorded, sirens immediately begin to sound. It seems that in all regions of the Russian Federation where explosions are heard, sirens simply do not work. This means that the threat was under controlled. That is, the rocket was Russian, so triggering the alarm was completely unnecessary.
This means either the Russian authorities simply do not care about the lives of Russians, or the Russian authorities are trying to ensure that there are victims among the civilian population of the Russian Federation, as in the late 90s before the start of the Second Chechen War. For some reason, the Russian side does not like to remember that it was the Russian Federation that killed its children in Beslan, it was Russia that killed people in the theater on Dubrovka (nord-ost), it was Russia that blew up its citizens in Moscow and Volgodonsk, and failed to do this in Ryazan. It was Russia that hit the market and the hospital in Grozny with cruise missiles, it was Russia that killed civilians in Samashki and Novye Aldy.
In any case, this situation will be used by the Russians not only to once again demonize Ukraine, but also to cover up their war crimes, in particular, in Kremenchug and the Odessa region. And if the leadership of the Russian Federation likes this idea, such explosions in Russian cities may become a frequent occurrence.
By striking at Belgorod, the Kremlin also achieves several tasks: diverts attention from systemic explosions of a military and non-military nature in the rear of the Russian Federation; intimidates the population, diverting attention from the failures of the “special operation” and the growing crisis; forms arguments for stopping the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine from Western partners; creates the ground for a new round of criminal shelling of Kharkov and other cities of Ukraine.