West suspects Russia has begun its winter offensive with attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector
Pravda Ukraine
Russia’s missile attacks on Ukraine on the night of 7-8 December may indicate the launch of a campaign of attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, which the Kremlin has been preparing for in recent months, Sky News reports.
Source: Sky News, citing an anonymous Western official at a closed-door briefing for journalists, European Pravda reports
Details: According to the source, over the past few weeks, the West has been emphasising that Russia could launch a coordinated winter campaign of attacks on Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure.
Quote: “And we’ve assessed that last night, Russia probably attempted to initiate this activity.”
According to the official, Russia struck Ukraine using heavy bomber aircraft, “highly likely the Tupolev 95 Bear-H aircraft, which actually haven’t been deployed and used for the last couple of months or so”.
The West believes that the cruise missiles that Russia launched are likely to be “premier precision-guided munitions which the Russians have been almost certainly stockpiling over the last few months,” the source said.
Quote: “Despite all this, initial reports indicate that the majority of the missiles were intercepted. Despite tragically at least one civilian being reported killed, the damage appears to be minimal.”
The Western official noted that Russia’s latest attack was not coordinated with Shahed drones, which the Russians have been using in recent weeks.
Reminder: On the morning of 8 December, Russia fired 19 Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles on Ukraine, 14 of which were shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force. One person was killed, several others were injured and an industrial facility was damaged in the attack on Pavlohrad in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
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