Blazingcatfur

Russian missiles have destroyed a third of Ukraine’s power stations, President Zelensky said today as citizens were warned to brace for hardship this winter.

Zelensky said the damage had been done in only eight days and had led to “massive blackouts across the country”. On October 10, Russia launched its biggest salvo of missile attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war.

#Ukraine: A powerful Ukrainian 2S7 Pion 203mm self-propelled howitzer seen firing a rare 3O14 cluster projectile, each of which dispenses 24 1.3kg HE FRAG submunitions.

There is a ~90 meter kill radius for uncovered standing targets, at ranges of up to 30km. pic.twitter.com/fJepbGZ4rL

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 18, 2022

Ukrainian forces have recently retaken much of the ground that was captured by Russia in the first months of this year, and the Russian government and military response has looked increasingly panicked. Hundreds of thousands of civilian men have been drafted, with large numbers fleeing the country to avoid conscription, and dozens of cruise missiles fired at civilian targets in Ukrainian cities, killing at least 11 people.

Most alarmingly, perhaps, Vladimir Putin has discussed the possibility of using nuclear weapons and his subordinate, the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, has called for the use of a “tactical” nuclear weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine.

There’s been little backsliding so far but a serious energy crisis looms

Can Ukraine sustain a war effort that is proceeding far better than most military analysts ever expected? Part of that answer, of course, depends on the extent to which the Ukrainian army can keep their troops in the field equipped, supplied, and motivated. That challenge comes as the Russian military increasingly relies on so-called “kamikaze drones” to strike deep into Ukrainian territory (on October 17, a Russian drone attack killed four people in Kyiv during the morning rush hour).