The grim prediction for Putin from a retired general 1:09
(CNN) --
The barrage of Russian attacks that rained down on Ukraine on Monday made every city in the country feel much closer to war than it had for months.
At least 19 people were killed and dozens wounded in the missile strikes, backed by Iranian-made attack drones.
Infrastructure was damaged and houses before winter were plunged into a blackout.
However, Ukrainian officials said that about half of the 84 missiles had been intercepted.
Russian commentators even suggested that 150 had been launched, indicating that the damage could have been worse.
It was a different level of force on Moscow's part, but perhaps not a radical change in its strategy, for two reasons.
Breaking news and news from Russia's war in Ukraine
First of all, it is unlikely that they will be able to withstand this kind of bombardment over time.
They have been firing missiles intermittently at targets week after week across Ukraine, which will have had an impact on stockpiles.
It is not clear how many drones they have received from Iran, but that too is limited and a reflection of depleted stocks, not excess.
Monday may have been more an expression of military might than a long-term change in tactics.
It is important to remember that Moscow has had absolutely no reservations about attacking civilian targets or infrastructure since the beginning of the war.
In the week before Monday's attacks, the city of Zaporizhia was hit repeatedly by missiles, which slammed into apartment blocks, killing and wounding dozens.
Early in the war, a maternity hospital and a theater converted into a shelter marked with the words "CHILDREN" in Mariupol were hit.
Monday was not a sudden change in Russia's moral compass.
They just did the same thing they have been doing during the war on a larger and broader scale.
Second, it didn't really work.
By the volume of spent cruise missiles, the damage to Ukraine's infrastructure was far from catastrophic.
Kyiv endured gruesome scenes of crowded rush-hour streets, along with playgrounds and city parks, and terror it hadn't seen in months.
The net effect of the day the Ukrainians hid in bomb shelters was some damage to energy infrastructure and loss of civilian life, but also a promise from the White House to supply the advanced air defenses Kyiv has been asking for for months. .
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At one site we visited in Dnipro, where two expensive cruise missiles hit an abandoned telecommunications building and a civilian bus, causing a huge crater, the road had already been paved by Tuesday morning, according to footage posted by locals.
Even the damage was not permanent.
so, what is it about?
The message Moscow sent to Ukraine was not much of a change from the past seven months of carnage.
She extended the war to Ukrainian cities that had felt safer.
But he again united Ukraine's allies and stepped up the air defenses Kyiv needs.
The message he sent was probably successful in only one direction: nationally.
Putin has been under intense pressure, enduring rare open dissent and criticism of the conduct of the war in the weeks since the disastrous execution of a partial mobilization that suddenly dragged tens of thousands of additional Russian families into the war.
His troops are withdrawing on three separate fronts, unable to resupply and at greater risk now that the Kerch bridge from the mainland to Crimea has proven highly vulnerable.
The calls to “do something” had become deafening.
And after three hours of sheer terror in the Ukraine, “something” has been done.
Critics who had been shocked by talking about the war, like Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, were suddenly pleased with the war's progress.
Kremlin spokesmen celebrated the attacks on social media.
It was ugly, but they felt they had finally inspired a fear that Moscow had been unable to conjure for weeks.
Fear is an essential part of Russia's military strategy, which has made its cumbersome, low-cost military seem nearly omnipotent for the past decade.
Without it, they're stuck dealing with poor fuel supplies, terrified recruits on the front lines, and a lack of powerful strategy.
But will it work again or become part of their regular tactics?
Probably not.
Ukraine's air defenses appeared to be doing a reasonable job Tuesday of intercepting more Russian missiles.
Western aid is likely to improve that effectiveness in the coming weeks.
Russia was unable to hit the target with great precision, sometimes missing or not really knowing what they were hitting, as we have seen before.
The effect of the attacks on the Russian government's national audience is also likely to be short-lived.
They are still losing territory and soldiers on the front lines.
They still cannot properly equip those they have forced to fight.
These are problems that will be felt in more and more Russian homes, soon after the brief moment of brutal power that these attacks have provided has passed.
The bombing marks a sharp and savage change in tone for Russia's new commander, Sergei Surovikin, a man whose career has been marked by the indiscriminate bombing of Syrian civilians and Russia's brutal second Chechen war.
Perhaps it is a punctuation moment in a long chapter of failure, or simply serves to announce the arrival of him.
However, Monday's horror is unlikely Russia has the inventory to repeat it, or the intelligence to make it as effective as it is expensive.
It provides a frightening but desperately needed moment of respite for a Kremlin for whom Ukraine has dictated the war narrative for weeks.
It is anyway a sign of despair.
And even in his announcement, Putin's threats were less strident: He said that future attacks would be met with a response that corresponded to the threat Russia faced.
There was less nuclear bombardment and no promise to continue the attack regardless.
Even in his brief moment of imposing terror on Ukraine, Putin spoke from a position of increasing weakness, this time with dozens fewer cruise missiles in his arsenal.
War in Ukraine Vladimir Putin