Is Putin trying to be benevolent?

Vladimir Putin's announcement that he has no plans for more large-scale bombardment of Ukraine (for the moment) was intended, I suppose, to put the people of that poor suffering country at ease. Like a sortof benevolent gesture. Well no one is fooled by that. Putin says he doesn't want to destroy Ukraine but the multiple ballistic and cruise missiles he launched at cities and towns across Ukraine in the last week gave a very different picture of what Putin wants. Basically he wants the people of Ukraine to be overwhelmed by fear and terror. He certainly achieved that over the last week. But above all his message given to reporters about calling off the mass bombardment was for the Kyiv government: you try and bomb my beautiful Kerch Strait Bridge again and you will get more of this missile bombardment. It's going to take months to repair the damage to the bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea and Putin is desperately anxious to deter Kyiv from having another go, or doing something else that would cause him humiliation. I suspect the Kyiv government will answer his "benevolence" with an even greater surge in fighting to drive Putin's troops out of Ukraine.