As impressive as Ukraine’s recent string of victories against Russian forces has been, we are presented with fresh reminders that the Russians are far from a spent force and, despite their logistics and other problems, still have offensive potency.

Saturday, in apparent response to the truck bomb attack (seemingly by Azerbaijani terrorists, based on what has been reported by TASS), Russia struck multiple Ukranian cities, including Kyiv, with missile and artillery fire.

Ukrainian media also reported explosions in a number of other locations, including the western city of Lviv that has been a refuge for many people fleeing the fighting in the east, as well as Kharkiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytskyi.

Kharkiv was hit three times, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The strikes knocked out the electricity and water supply. Energy infrastructure was also hit in Lviv, Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said.

The multiple strikes came a few hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to hold a meeting with his security council, as Moscow’s war in Ukraine approaches its eight-month milestone and the Kremlin reels from humiliating battlefield setbacks in areas it is trying to annex amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks.

Separately, Russian forces look to be gaining ground in their effort to take the strategically significant town of Bakhmut, on the Kharkiv front in the northeast.

In a video address on Saturday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops were involved in very tough fighting near Bakhmut.

Bakhmut sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, both situated in the industrial Donbas region, which Moscow has yet to fully capture.

Despite Ukraine’s recent successes, this war is still very much a war of attrition, and, as such, very much remains Russia’s war to lose.