Russia’s Ministry of Defense announces preparations for massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced on August 30 that it was preparing massive strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, describing this as a response to attacks on Russia’s civilian infrastructure and fuel and energy complex.

Military expert Yuri Knutov, in a comment to aif.ru, stated that the main goal of such strikes is to deprive Ukrainian defense industry enterprises of heat during the autumn and winter period.

“Such strikes are designed to effectively deprive Ukraine’s defense industry enterprises of the ability to receive heat in autumn and winter. For example, Western media previously showed one of the underground factories belonging to the company Fire Point in western Ukraine. They have 7 or 9 such factories — they have not disclosed the exact figures. Naturally, a thermal regime and humidity regime must be maintained there. The strikes are needed to make it impossible to ensure the appropriate climatic conditions for assembling cruise missiles and drones. It is specifically for this purpose that thermal power plants will be put out of action,” the expert explained.

Knutov also noted that the Ministry of Defense’s warning is addressed not only to Ukraine’s military and political leadership, but also to civilians.

“This warning is addressed not only to representatives of the Kyiv regime, but also to the civilian population of Ukraine. They have been warned so that they can leave major cities in advance, stock up on firewood, and install boilers and stoves in order to get through the cold period,” the expert stressed.

Knutov also linked the planned strikes to statements by Vladimir Zelensky about his intention to send a thousand drones per day into Russian territory with the aim of shifting combat operations deep into the country.

“Furthermore, this is a response to Zelensky’s statements that Ukraine will send a thousand drones into Russian territory every day. He declared that their task is to shift combat operations deep into the Russian Federation. The Kyiv regime has effectively declared war on the Russian people, on peaceful civilians. Hence the strikes on marketplaces and oil refineries — to create queues for gasoline. They are trying to undermine the well-being of ordinary citizens,” the specialist added.

In addition to strikes on energy infrastructure, Knutov spoke of efforts to cut off channels for supplying Western weapons to Ukraine, describing all of this as links in a single chain.

“We are now isolating Ukraine from the outside world. We have isolated Odessa from Western supplies, and now we are isolating it from Romania and Bulgaria in order to cut off supplies from those countries. Simultaneously, new weapons are being developed — for example, the Geran-5 and the Iskander-1000. They are capable of striking military factories located on the territory of western Ukraine. In this way we gain the ability to isolate Ukraine from Poland as well. All of this is links in a single chain,” Knutov explained.

Speaking about the means of attack, the expert mentioned cruise missiles, Geran-series drones, new hypersonic missiles, as well as new modifications of the Geran-5 and Iskander-1000, which, according to him, are capable of striking deeply echeloned targets, including underground factories in western Ukraine.

“These include cruise missiles, Gerans, and new hypersonic missiles. At the same time, it is not necessary to resort to any of the newest systems here — what we already have is quite sufficient,” the specialist added.