In its defense, not the only one.
No, it finds itself in good company - it's true.
The only reason they are misbehaving, like with these recent attacks on Belgorod - is because they are becoming desperate. It's already a recognizable pattern.
1) When things were going badly last summer, pre-Kharkov and Kherson, they killed Dugina. At the time, in typical idiotic fashion, the Ukrainians contradicted each other. Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak stated that "we are not a criminal state like the Russian Federation, much less a terrorist one". The head of the GRU, Budanov, instead announced that the unraveling of the Russkiy Mir had begun and that more assassinations would follow.
2) Then things actually started going decently well for Ukraine, on the battlefield, and these attacks stopped.
3) Fast forward to this spring, when they had their ass handed to them in Bakhmut, after screaming for months that they would never give it up. Just as it became clear that Bakhmut was a done deal, the "Freedom of Russia Legion" attacks Belgorod.
4) The counter-offensive starts, and Ukraine again refrains from most kind of bullsh*t activity. However, then it becomes obvious it's not going so well. So again, Ukraine starts making illogical amphibious landings in Crimea, on the Left Bank of the Dnieper, and finally crashing drones into Moscow skyscrapers.
The same is happening now. The West is flushing them down the toilet, 2024 looks like a year that will be entirely on the defensive, and his popularity is down in the dumps. What to do? Attack Belgorod!
Belgorod is a city of 300,000, located about 40 km from the border. Another 50km away, is Kharkov - a Ukrainian city with 2.5M people. Every time Belgorod gets hit, Kharkov gets a punch back that's twice as hard. Zelensky knows this. It shows how especially cynical and illogical these attacks on Belgorod are. They are done, just because they can be done.
