Putin is once again fiercely shelling Ukraine's capital Kyiv and other cities across the country in the most intense blasts to hit the Ukrainian capital since the early days of the war.
Preliminary reports suggest that at least ten people died and 60 were injured in the strike in Kyiv as of 8.45am local time, as children on their way to school were sent running for shelter.
Further, potentially coordinated, explosions have also been heard across Ukraine from Lviv in the west to Dnipro in the east.
There have been four explosions in Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine, locals say and two rockets were shot down over Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine's Defence Ministry has vowed revenge for Monday's strikes on the country, as it said Russia used Iranian drones in missile strikes on Kyiv.
Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces says Russia fired 75 missiles at Ukrainian cities today.
Why has Putin ordered such devastating attacks?
It appears to be a tit for tat revenge attack responding to an explosion, probably caused by Ukraine, on the Kerch Bridge, a 12 mile link between Russia and Crimea.
The bridge was a huge deal to Putin, finally finishing off his 2014 invasion of the peninsula, but also strategically it is crucial for supply lines to his troops in Ukraine.
The missile attacks throughout Ukraine appear to have concentrated on dismantling the country’s infrastructure and striking terror in the hearts of civilians.
Widespread electricity outages, damage, horrific woundings and death all point towards the Kremlin’s continued depravity in trying to subdue Ukraine’s defiance.
Although strategically the missiles have done little to affect Ukraine’s military advances in south and east Ukraine they are likely to carry a message too - a warning of what is to come.
What is likely to happen next?
There is no doubt this is an escalation in the Ukraine invasion, showing Moscow is still capable of deploying enormous there despite losing the ground war.
But Ukrainian defiance is unlikely to bow to Russia’s continued campaign of atrocities throughout the country.
Technically the bridge explosion was probably still in Ukrainian territory but Putin will not see it as that - as the structure was Russian-built and he says Crimea is Russian.
He has vowed to “defend” Russia and even though the world knows pretty much all of the violence is taking place inside Ukraine, he feels he has to do something.
Ukraine is also likely to do something in response to these missile attacks, probably against a Russian military target, that will help its counter-offensive strategically.
But Ukraine may be slipping further towards a deadly tit-for-tat escalation, whilst Putin’s back is against the wall and he feels he has to keep escalating.
Clearly he wants to dismantle Ukraine’s infrastructure, smashing its power networks and as winter approaches this could impose enormous misery upon civilians.
Is the West under threat?
Some of the missiles fired are thought to have flown through Moldovan airspace and this is significant as a sign of increasing recklessness and willingness of Russia to go beyond Ukraine.
Ukraine is holding the line against the biggest security threat against Europe since World War Two and Washington has stated clearly NATO will not tolerate an attack against a member state.
So the war is entering a dangerous phase with Putin desperately searching for new targets outside Ukraine without prodding NATO into going to war against him.
This means increased cyber attacks and probably a heightened threat level against maritime western pipelines and communications such as those between the UK and America.
These kind of attacks, such as the Nord1 pipeline breach, although fairly obviously done by Russia, may be unprovable and fall beneath the threshold for war.
But UK chief of the defence staff Admiral Tony Radakin has already preempted this when he said that any attack on these cables, linking European communications to America, would be an “act of war.”
If it cannot immediately be proved who did them they may still fall below the threshold - and asymmetrical war tactics such as this can be just as damaging if not more than a missile.
What will stop this spiral of violence in Ukraine?
The most obvious end would be if Putin’s rule were suddenly to end but despite the rumours of growing plots against him this appears not to be happening in the short term.
Ukrainian and western intelligence believes there is growing discontent in the military for obvious reasons and Putin’s intelligence services are also under suspicion.
There have been arrests of senior players in both in Moscow and Putin is desperate to pinpoint scapegoats to take the blame for his appalling, bungled and brutal war.
In Kyiv, sources have told the Daily Mirror there are already whispers of a conflict between the FSB spooks and the army, with Putin watching carefully to see who will move first.
But the truth is Putin’s spooks were bullied into wrongly telling him what he wanted to hear - that a weakened Ukraine was ripe for being invaded.
And the military has repeatedly bungled tactically , whilst become increasingly keen to flee in the face of ferocious defiance from Ukraine’s troops.
