Vladimir Putin is not generally known to be a sensitive kind of guy. For confirmation of that just look at the destruction he has wrought over wide swaths of Ukraine, or the plight of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, or — the list goes on. Yet in a curious recalibration, the Russian strongman has copped to some egregious miscalculations with respect to cross-border attacks, to which the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine has been particularly vulnerable.

Although the message may be one for domestic consumption as Moscow’s “special military operation,” as the Kremlin phrases it, creeps closer to Russian citizens’ doors, it will likely register at Kyiv as another sign that robust counteroffensive operations are slowly wearing down at least portions of the Russian war machine. “There is nothing good in this,” Mr. Putin told an audience of pro-Kremlin war bloggers and reporters on Tuesday in reference to weeks of strikes on Belgorod region, which included an incursion in late May that was claimed by an anti-Kremlin militia.

“But in principle,” he added, “one could have assumed that the enemy would behave this way, and one could have prepared better.” As for the upgrades to elements of Russia’s air defense systems that ostensibly could have prevented some of the attacks in Russia territory attributed to Ukraine, Mr. Putin said, “It would be better if this was done in a timely manner and at the proper level, but nevertheless this work is being done.”

Is it, though? A recent barrage of drone strikes in the heart of Moscow point to Mr. Putin’s statement as reflexive Kremlin spin. While there is no doubt Russia has robust air defenses in general, in reality the country was prepared for neither the duration nor the creativity of Ukrainian counterattacks. This can be perceived as a signal to Kremlin-watchers in Ukraine to keep those kinds of operations, which may not be limited to drone strikes, coming. 

Because Mr. Putin is like the proverbial leopard who can neither conceal his claws for long nor change his spots, though, at the same meeting he issued new threats, too. One of those was “to create on Ukrainian territory a kind of sanitary zone at such a distance from which it would be impossible to get our territory.”

By “sanitary zone,” the Russian leader appears to have meant “security zone,” possibly along the lines of a security zone that Israel maintained for a number of years in southern Lebanon, though under a completely different set of circumstances. His language will appeal to some regional Russian governors who have been pleading  for more protection against alleged Ukrainian counterstrikes. 

How far would such a zone in Ukraine go? In response to that question, Mr. Putin would only say, “everything will depend on potentials that emerge after the so-called counteroffensive.”

Yet Mr. Putin is likely more willing than ready to try to seize more land in Ukraine. That is because not only are Ukrainian counteroffensive measures chipping away at long-held Russian positions in eastern Ukraine, but Russia has also failed to steer control over the regions it illegally annexed last year with anything like a steady hand. 

A case in point is the ecological disaster under way in southern Ukraine following the explosion at the Kakhovka Dam over the Dnieper River. Russia has blamed Ukraine for it, but most experts agree that Russia would have had more to gain in blowing up the dam by impeding Ukrainian counteroffensive advances in the region. Yet this comes at the cost of almost bewildering scenes of chaos that underscore, if nothing, else, Mr. Putin’s appetite for destruction in pursuit of his broader objectives.

Despite ongoing reports of dissension in the Kremlin, Mr. Putin has a broad domestic mandate to continue prosecuting his war. One of his staunchest allies, a former president, Dmitry Medvedev, wrote on social media Wednesday that Russia no longer had any “moral limits” on destroying its enemies’ undersea communication cables. The remarks are noteworthy not only because of ongoing ambiguity as to the ruptures of the Nord Stream pipelines last September but also because of the Dnieper dam break. 

The ongoing blame game notwithstanding, this all underscores how there are really two active battlefronts in this war: a brutal but conventional one being fought along a 600-mile frontline in the Donbas and a hybrid or shadow war in which civilian infrastructure continues to be targeted. 

In Mr. Putin’s portfolio for that category of attacks are, of course, more missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. Overnight on Tuesday, Russian forces fired cruise missiles at Odessa and in eastern Donetsk, with reports of at least six people killed and dozens more injured. 

The ravenous Russ also might still have his eyes on Kyiv. “Should we come back there or not?” he taunted his listeners before adding, “Only I could give an answer.”