what strategic goal is achieved by the repeated shelling of Kyiv
1) We cannot shell it, it's out of range of our tubes.
2) We are exhausting the AD supply. A single Patriot missile costs $4M. An Iranian Shahed drone costs something like $50-200K. Already, Ukrainians are asking for urgent resupply. Reuters is your friend.
3) According to you we are shelling civilians. We believe we are hitting concentrations of weapons and munitions. The casualty rate of 1 civilian dead for 50+ missiles launched seems to confirm that we are not trying to hurt innocents.
4) Work is continuing on disabling the Ukrainian electrical grid, and making sluggish or unusable their logistical arteries.
5) Our aviation has a role to play in smashing this Ukrainian counter offensive. It's job will be much more difficult if Ukrainians are able to pull their AD systems closer to where the action will unfold. We need to keep Ukrainian AD pinned and hopefully devoid of ammo. In this way, the Russian Air Force might finally be able to make a worthy entry into this war, after sitting it out for the first 15 months.