Hello and welcome to Battleground with me, Patrick Bishop and Saw David.

Well, this week Ukraine's been suffering under what's being described as the worst series of bombardments Russia has

inflicted on it since the invasion of 2022.

After Ukraine's lightning conquest of big chunks of the Kursk region, this act of retribution

aimed at the civilian population largely came as no surprise.

We'll be discussing that and asking whether Putin's vengeance

will back fire on him and force the United States to give the green light to Kiev to use

long-range missiles to hit military targets deeper inside Russia. And talking of the Ukrainian

and Kirshin into Kursk, we're welcoming back Askoel-Khrushel-Nitsky, who's just returned from

a tour of the newly

captured territory with the Ukrainian army and is currently in Constantinuka, which is in the

Donbass, and you're going to get a sense of the jeopardy that Ascal's in when you hear actual

sounds of explosions as we talk to him. But first, the Russian air assault on cities across Ukraine.

Like you say, Patrick, it was hardly unexpected, but this has been really something.

The attacks began on early Monday, with air alerts sounding all across the country,

as Moscow unleashed a torrent of drones.

This was followed by waves of cruise missiles launched from about 18

TU-95 and TU-22M3 strategic bombers, which were time to hit during the Monday morning Russia,

presumably to inflict maximum casualties. More than half the country's regions, 15 of them were hit,

and major cities like Kiv, Kharkiv, Denepro Zaparica,

LeViv, etc. were struck. President Zelensky said that more than 100 missiles and 100 drones

were involved. Then there was more of the same on Tuesday, with 10 missiles and 81 drones arriving.

...