Putin making Ukraine ‘less inhabitable’ to spark migrant crisis

Russia is trying to make cities in Ukraine ‘less and less inhabitable’ through long-range missile strikes to force the mass migration of ‘another two million Ukrainian refugees’ into neighbouring Europe. Over the past few months, Putin has resorted to a number of tactics designed to overcome the significant losses sustained on the battlefield and Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former Commander of US Army forces in Europe, told Times Radio that the ‘weaponization of refugees’ is the latest of those methods. He claimed by ‘specifically targeting Ukraine’s power generation capabilities’, Russia was deliberately forcing the nation’s inhabitants to flee to nearby Europe before the harsh reality of winter makes the lack of energy and power too devastating to tolerate.  Lieutenant General Hodges said: ‘It was actually General Breedlove, former secretary here, who I first heard use the phrase weaponization of refugees, which is what Syria, with Russian support, was doing by using chemical weapons against their opponents, putting millions of refugees on the road towards Europe. ‘Now, of course, what the Russians are doing by attacking the power infrastructure across all of Ukraine, I mean specifically targeting their power generation capabilities, making Ukrainian cities less and less inhabitable as winter approaches, potentially, you are looking at another two million refugees going into Europe. ‘This would not be a surprise to the Russians that what they are doing would cause this kind of effect. ‘This is all intended to put pressure on Western Governments so that they will lose the willingness to continue supporting Ukraine.’ Protesters hold placards expressing their opinion during the demonstration against Russia in Turkey (Image: GETTY ) Ukrainian successes on the battlefield have pushed Putin to explore other tactics (Image: GETTY )Russian use, or at least its condoning, of the weaponization of refugees is not a new concept; as highlighted by Lieutenant General Hodges, the Russian-backed Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, have used this tactic in the last eight years. As Russian soldiers appear to be losing on the battlefield, with roughly 72,000 troops killed since the invasion on February 24, more than a thousand of which were killed last weekend, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Putin looks to be employing this strategy to offset those issues. On Monday, the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv were bombed by Russian strikes yet again. Even Lviv, in the far northwest of Ukraine, which is a city that has avoided ground combat altogether owing to its proximity to Poland, just under 70 kilometres away, has suffered Russian strikes in the last few weeks. READ MORE: Russia hits ‘new level of cruelty’ as Putin unleashes suicide drones [REVEAL]  Putin has authorised mass civilian strikes to displace Ukrainians into Europe (Image: GETTY ) Kyiv residents take shelter on Monday as Russian missiles strike overhead (Image: GETTY )Among Putin’s other tactics, such as annexing territory in the east and south of Ukraine in an effort to assert a legal right over the land, a strategy that has summarily failed as Russian troops continue to be pushed out of those territories nevertheless, Russia appears to be trying to weaponize refugees as emphatically as possible. Hundreds of Ukrainians have died in the long-range strikes of late, with the rest of the civilian population living with the continual sound of air raid sirens. The act of forcing non-fighting Ukrainians to leave the country has a number of benefits to Russia. It risks overwhelming Western supporters with an influx of refugees, effectively blackmailing those nations into withdrawing their support of Ukraine to maintain civility within their own borders. It also allows Russia to avoid battlefield combat and rely on their preferred method of ‘scorched earth’ tactics, which involve razing territories to the ground using long-range weapons, after which their soldiers are sent in to overcome the few remaining soldiers. DON’T MISS: Washington increasingly concerned over Putin using nuclear weapon [INSIGHT] Putin tipped to lose all Ukraine gains since 2014 by next summer [REPORT] Boris Johnson warns Putin to lose support of key ally China [REVEAL]  Ukrainians, some with their children, queue up outside the Polish Border at Przemysl (Image: GETTY )The depopulation of civilian Ukraine permits such tactics to be used without the risk of counterintuitively appalling the West into continued support of Ukraine by brutally bombing civilian territories. It also reduces the number of Ukrainians the Armed Forces can call upon if and when they are needed. Additionally, the mass migration of the Ukrainian population will make it considerably harder for the country to remain a sustainable independent state with a functioning economy. Since the Russian invasion in February, about 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country and Putin had hoped that overwhelming western nations with refugees would destabilise them – especially neighbouring Poland. So far, however, he has been disappointed, but it is uncertain how many more refugees Europe can sustain.READ NEXT: Brussels warned trade war with Biden risks becoming ‘gift to Putin’Putin ‘much more cautious’ over using nuclear after China warning ‘Scale of Russian losses is jaw-dropping – Putin cannot go on’Russia accuses Zelensky of plotting to use NATO nuclear weaponUkraine grain supply under threat due to Russia