Russia’s campaign to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure most likely ineffective, says UK intelligence
Russia’s campaign to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure most likely ineffective, says UK intelligence (Photo:State Emergency Service of Ukraine/facebook.com)
Russia’s strategy to destroy Ukrainian critical infrastructure is most likely proving ineffective, the UK’s Defense Intelligence said in an update on Ukraine on Dec. 1.
The UK’s Ministry of Defense noted that since October 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s electricity distribution grid, primarily with cruise missiles.
“This is likely the first example of Russia attempting to implement the concept of a Strategic Operation for the Destruction of Critically Important Targets (SODCIT), a key component of the military doctrine it has adopted in recent years,” the report says.
According to the Defense Intelligence, Russia envisioned SODCIT as using long-range missiles to strike an enemy state’s critical national infrastructure, rather than its military forces, to demoralise the population and ultimately force the state’s leaders to capitulate.
“Russia’s strikes continue to cause power shortages resulting in indiscriminate, widespread humanitarian suffering across Ukraine,” reads the report.
However, its effectiveness as a strategy has likely been blunted because Russia has already expended a large proportion of its suitable missiles against tactical targets, the agency emphasized.
Also, with Ukraine having successfully mobilised for nine months, material and psychological effect of the SODCIT is likely less than if it was deployed in the initial period of a war, the Defense Intelligence added.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was preparing another massive missile strike at Ukraine’s territory. According to the president, the current week could be as difficult as the previous one.
According to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, Russia has launched more than 16,000 missile attacks on Ukraine over the past nine months, with 97% of them hitting civilian objects.
Meanwhile, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov suggested that Russia would be able to repeat the massive missile attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure only another three or four times.
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