“The head of the intelligence center of the Estonian Defense Forces, Colonel Ants Kiviselg, said that Russia is likely to resume large-scale airstrikes in Ukraine in the coming weeks, focusing attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Illustrative photo: Getty Images Source: “European truth” with reference to ERR
Details: Kiwiselg said that the weather conditions of the past week did not bring any changes to the battlefield.
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“The Russian Federation has not slowed down its military machine, but continues to very aggressively put pressure on the defense positions of Ukraine,” he said.
However, according to Kiviselg, the Russians failed to take advantage of their advantage in human resources. He noted that at the tactical level, Russia’s military operations have gone from “significant and planned” actions to “routine and boring” execution of orders, which has resulted in the death of a huge number of people.
“It must be admitted that, despite constant pressure from the Russian Federation, the situation on the front line has not changed significantly, only minor tactical movements have taken place on the ground, and the main activity is still concentrated around Pokrovsk,” the intelligence officer said.
According to him, Pokrovsk has become an end in itself for Russia, and Russian military personnel “are under great pressure to capture the city.”
“Over the past year, not a single large settlement has been captured, and the Russian military continues to be given different deadlines for the capture of Pokrovsk until mid-November or, at the latest, until December 1,” he said.
However, the fall of Pokrovsk will not change the overall situation in any way, and according to estimates, the infiltration tactics used by the Russians and the apparent lack of necessary reserves will not allow them to concentrate enough forces to “use the capture of the city for a further breakthrough.”
According to him, Russia compensates for the lack of success on the battlefield with large-scale attacks throughout Ukraine. In addition to the usual missile and drone attacks, drones have begun attacking areas close to the front line, and over the past week there have been many cases of targeted attacks on civilians near Kherson.
According to Estonian intelligence, the number of drone attacks in October remained at the level of September, but the use of missiles in such attacks increased significantly – by 44% in a month.
“If rockets were used approximately 185 times in September, then in October – approximately 270 times, which, according to some data, is the highest number of rockets used in one month during the entire period of active war,” Kiwiselg said.
He noted that last week and throughout October, it was obvious that Russia used bad weather conditions to carry out drone and missile attacks, which reduced the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defense by several tens of percent.
“Despite massive long-range strikes and unmanned aerial vehicles, Ukraine’s air defenses remain highly effective. Ukraine manages to destroy about 80% of air strikes aimed at Ukrainian targets before they reach their targets,” Kiviselg said.
At the same time, he stressed that in the coming weeks, Russia can be expected to continue its winter bombing campaign, which mainly targets civilian infrastructure.
Kiwiselg added that next November it is quite likely that Russia will launch “three or four” waves of massive attacks.
We will remind:
- Recently, the head of the Department of Defense Preparedness of Estonia, Gert Kaiu, stated that although Russian troops are already advancing in Ukraine at an extremely slow pace, with the onset of autumn, it is likely will slow down even more.
- Kiviselg also stated that in the coming winter Russia activates strikes on the critically important energy infrastructure of Ukraine, seeking to cause maximum damage to the civilian population – Russia now has more resources for this than before.