Payback

The Russians executed a campaign of deep rocket strikes targetting the infrastructure of Western Ukraine. The (incomplete) list of results as of now, according to Intel Slava Z channel:

🇷🇺🇺🇦 The result of today’s missile strikes:

▪️The following cities were hit:

– Kiev

– Dnepropetrovsk

– Kharkiv

– Zaporozhye

– Ternopil

– Odessa

– Krivoy Rog

– Lviv

– Zhitomir

– Rivne

– Nikolaev

– Krapivnitsky

– Kremenchuk

– Konotop

▪️Strikes on important objects:

– Glavk SBU (Kiev)

– CHPP-5 (Kiev)

– CHPP-6 (Kiev)

– Lviv CHP (Lviv)

– Burshtynska TPP (Ivano-Frankivsk region)

– EU Advisory Mission (Kiev)

– Department of law enforcement agencies (Kiev)

▪️Metro in Kiev and Kharkov stopped

▪️Light gone:

– Lviv

– Zhitomir

– Sumy

– Kharkiv

– Khmelnitsky

– Poltava

– Ternopl

– Lutsk

– Rivne

▪️In many cities of Ukraine, there are problems with water supply and the Internet

Putin made a statement saying, basically, that this is a response to the Kerch bridge attack, and if anything similar happens (which, of course, it will), there will be a “significant military response”. This can’t be anything other than a preparatory move ahead of the great offensive, but the bridge attack served as a convenient explanation that avoids telegraphing the intent ahead of time. The delay between this and the ground assault can’t be too long, though.

I see this as a second phase of Russian offensive. The “light shafts towards the sky” disrupting satellites was the first. The third phase would be cutting down the Ukrainian forward positions now that the communications with NATO are disrupted, and the fourth phase would be to roll everything down with a massive ground assault once the teeth are pulled from the Ukrainian forces in the East, reducing Russian losses.