During a quarter-century in power, Vladimir Putin has led Russia into three wars, in part aimed at restoring his country's status as a world power via violent conquest .

Each war began in a blitzkrieg-style display of fearsome power meant to climax in a swift victory.

Instead, each conflict, whether the 1999-2009 war on the Russian province of Chechnya, or the 2015-2024 air campaign in Syria to help dictator Bashar al-Assad fight Islamic rebels or now the Ukraine war, descended into a single strategy: bludgeoning use of air power against cities in tactics reminiscent of World War II.

Because Grozny, the Chechen capital, was the first victim of such battering, military experts have dubbed the strategy the "Grozny Model" or, sarcastically, "Peace Through Obliteration."

"I hate to use this term, but I think the 'Grozny-fication' of Kyiv has begun," Max Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told an American television interviewer. "And that is something I thought was unimaginable."

The latest chapter began last Tuesday, when Russian sent scores of drones and ballistic missiles to bombard civilian neighborhoods in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and killed 21 residents, including some children. The next three days saw bombardments of least three other cities. More than 100 people. died Emergency workers in the south-central town of Pryluky dug up 22 bodies from the ruins of an apartment building, Ukrainian television showed.

On Saturday, glide-bombers, which are winged projectiles launched from aircraft, killed 15 civilians in Zaporizhia, site of a nuclear power plant. "Its counter-city campaign may aim to drive out remaining civilians and collapse the capacity and will of Ukrainian defenders to resist any military occupation," predicted Colin P. Clarke, a researcher at The Soufan Center, a security analysis and research center based in New York.

James Hughs, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, offers a similar assessment and a pessimistic prediction: "What has occurred in Ukraine so far, tactically, is an iteration of Russia's Chechen conflict but on an even more immense scale. The strategic outcome, however, is likely to be similar – a costly Russian victory at the expense of massive opposition losses, destroyed infrastructure and depopulation."

Putin's goals are largely consistent, but tactics have evolved since the Chechen war.

I covered the assault on Grozny in late 1999 and into 2000. Russian jet bombers freely roamed the skies and tanks and artillery pummeled the city.