By Carla Martinez Machain, Susan Hannah Allen and Liam Collins
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine very early in the morning on Feb. 24, 2022, by launching missiles at military targets, including airfields and military command centers in major Ukrainian cities.
As researchers who study how bombing is used to obtain concessions from other countries, we think Russia’s strategy of attacking strategic Ukrainian military targets will likely be an effective way of using force to make Ukraine meet Russia’s demands, such as giving up territory.
Russia is not engaging only in a campaign of air power, which would have signaled a lack of willingness for it to incur monetary and human costs. Russia has instead launched a multipronged invasion that includes ground forces entering Ukraine from Russia, Belarus and Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.
Susan Hannah Allen is an associate professor of political science at the University of Mississippi.