Sunday began with air strikes in western Ukraine.

A signal to NATO and neighboring countries that they should not interfere in the war - and an attempt to strike at the deliveries of weapons to Ukraine from abroad, says Niklas Nilsson, associate professor of war science at the Swedish National Defense College.

At the same time, Russia is trying to push forward from the south to cut off the Ukrainian forces in the eastern parts of the country.

Several Ukrainian counterattacks

The fierce fighting over the capital Kyiv is also continuing - and the capital remains Russia's most important offensive target, according to Nilsson.

A Russian force is currently being built around the city.

- We have had limited success in this so far.

Ukraine has carried out several counterattacks and still has the capacity to disrupt Russian logistics and the supply of troops.

It is also difficult to completely surround the city, Nilsson emphasizes.

- On the other hand, they want to close the most important entrances and, as far as possible, control what comes in and out of the city.

Brutal tactics

Images spread from cities such as Kharkiv and Mariupol show enormous devastation, with entire neighborhoods destroyed by Russian shelling.

There is a conscious strategy behind the massive artillery shelling.

It is partly about purely military goals, says Niklas Nilsson: Russia wants to prepare for advances with maneuvering units.

- It has catastrophic consequences when it is implemented in cities, he says.

At the same time, it is also a form of psychological warfare.

- It is a conscious strategy to attack civilian targets, to increase the pressure on the Ukrainian leadership.

"Existential war for both sides"

He describes a war in which efforts for Russia have increased over time.

- If from the beginning there was a Russian ambition that the war would improve the country's strategic position, that window was closed already in the initial days.

For the Ukrainian state, this has been an existential war from the beginning, but it has also increasingly become an existential war for the Russian regime.

The Kremlin must be able to show some form of victory for the Russian people, Nilsson says.

- You are prepared to go very far to get there.