The Russian command has expanded the range of targets being hit in UkraineThe Aerospace Forces, Navy and Missile Forces of Russia continue to carry out massive strikes on military and infrastructure facilities of Ukraine.
On the morning of October 11, the Ladyzhinskaya Heat and Power Plant (CHP) suffered a fire defeat in the Vinnytsia region, electrical distribution equipment went out of order.
A dozen and a half explosions occurred in the northern part of Zaporozhye, including the administrative center.
"There is now a strong fire in several districts of the city and columns of smoke are visible, there are also power outages. Strikes are being carried out on military facilities and civilian infrastructure facilities used as military bases and storage sites for weapons with ammunition," said Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We are Together with Russia movement, who cooperates with the military–civil administration (CAA) of the liberated part of the Zaporozhye region.
The permission of the Russian leadership to defeat a number of critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine became known on the afternoon of October 10 from the mouth of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Opening the meeting of the Security Council, the head of state compared the current Kiev authorities with international terrorist groups, blaming them for the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, committed on October 8. "It is simply impossible to leave crimes of this kind unanswered. This morning, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Defense and according to the plan of the General Staff of Russia, a massive strike was carried out with high–precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons on energy, military administration and communications facilities of Ukraine," Putin said.
The following confirmation came during the daily press briefing of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on October 10. The official representative of the Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said that "the Russian Armed Forces inflicted a massive strike with high-precision long-range weapons on the objects of the military command, communications and energy systems of Ukraine. The aim of the strike has been achieved. All assigned objects are hit."
These objects, according to local sources, were located in Kiev, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnepropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Nikolaev, Odessa, Pavlograd, Zhytomyr, Khmelnitsky, Ternopil, Konotop and other cities.
The fire damage to key military and infrastructure facilities was inflicted by the X-101 and X-555 air launch cruise missiles, as well as the 3M-14 sea-based family. Calculations of anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) S-300P / PS and "Buk-M1" of the air defense (air defense) of Ukraine failed to cope with the task of repelling air raids. Since (for better camouflage) SAM launchers are deliberately placed inside the building, anti-missile launches often lead to the fall of their remains along with the affected targets on urban objects, only aggravating the situation. According to the statements of the Ukrainian military leaders, the strike was so massive that it repeatedly exceeded the air defense capabilities to repel it. According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Valery Zaluzhny, in the morning of October 10, the Russian military fired 75 long-range missiles.
However, the strikes continued, and towards the end the calculations gave a more impressive figure – 184, and this is only in six regions (Kiev, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa). Almost a third of the shells fell on the capital, which led to fires and power outages.
NATO countries, led by the United States, have long established the supply of the AFU with the latest intelligence information from air and space reconnaissance means. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the group serving the AFU includes more than 70 military and 200 civilian spacecraft. From orbit, flights of Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers, as well as launches of Kalibr cruise missiles from surface warships of the Caspian Flotilla and the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy are clearly visible. Therefore, the top political leadership in Kiev and military leaders always have half an hour to take their places in underground bunkers in a hurry. Ordinary citizens have to rely only on their natural instincts.
Those residents of Kiev who used public electric transport were the least lucky: soon after the arrival of the rockets, the subway stopped, trams and trolleybuses caught fire from a sharp drop in network voltage (CHP-5 and CHP-3 were hit). Entire urban areas were de-energized (and in Lviv there was a complete blackout). Among the affected objects were the buildings of the Ministry of Defense, the security Service, mobile operators and Internet service providers.
Submarines of the project 636.3 of the Black Sea Fleet are used to strike the enemy with Kalibr missiles. Photo by Vladimir Karnozov This is not the first such case since the beginning of a special military operation (SVO).
At the end of February – beginning of March, the Russian army threw tank and motorized rifle units on Kiev and at the same time carried out a landing from helicopters at the flight test center of the Antonov state company. At that time, air and missile strikes were also carried out on Kiev and its environs, and battles were fought with the use of armored vehicles and artillery for Gostomel, Bucha and other settlements near the capital. Kiev residents were forced to seek shelter at metro stations.
However, it was not for long. At the talks in Istanbul, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Alexander Fomin, announced the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kiev region, and it was presented as a gesture of goodwill on the part of Moscow. Since then, the main events took place in the central and southern sections of the front, which was reduced to 1 thousand km.
Kiev gradually returned to peaceful life. Not really, though. Periodically, long-range air-launched missiles of the type X555 and X101, launched from strategic bombers Tu-95MS and Tu-160, as well as sea-based 3M14 from surface ships and submarines in the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, hit large industrial enterprises located on the outskirts of the city.
Among them were the state-owned Antonov Company and the KiGAZ aircraft factory owned by it (developers and suppliers of aviation equipment for the Ukrainian Air Force), the Kiev Armored Plant (repairs tanks and produces wheeled armored vehicles for the Armed Forces of Ukraine), the Luch Design Bureau (they deal with weapons of destruction, including Neptune anti-ship missiles). And on June 26, the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov told the media: "The Aerospace Forces of Russia struck four high-precision air-launched missiles at the workshops of the rocket construction corporation "Artem" in the Shevchenko district of Kiev." And on April 16, Igor Evgenievich announced that "as a result of a Russian missile strike, the workshop of the Kiev Armored Plant was destroyed."
Fire damage to these and other enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine was inflicted mainly at night by long-range "Calibers". The front-line aviation operated aviation missiles of the X-59 family and more modern for individual objects, including broadcasting. Yet relative security has allowed a wide range of Western politicians, including presidents and prime ministers, to visit Kiev and even walk its streets with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
After the attack on the Crimean Bridge on the morning of October 8, the situation changed radically. Recall that as a result of the truck explosion, three spans of the automobile part of the structure collapsed. The Ukrainian special services conducted a daring operation, as a result of which several people (at least three) were killed, significant damage was inflicted on the object. By now, railway communication has been fully restored, and automobile traffic is carried out on a reduced number of lanes. None of the high-ranking leaders of the West condemned this, in fact, terrorist attack, and some did not restrain positive emotions, savoring the details of what happened.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu congratulated Kiev on a "successful action" with a "positive moment" – the suspension of traffic to Crimea. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that Reinsalu's words echo the "congratulations" addressed to the United States by former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski immediately after the September 26 sabotage on the Baltic Nord Stream gas pipeline.
Such a reaction from the West, as well as the statement of the representative of the Kiev regime Mikhail Podolyaki ("this is just the beginning") they clearly point to the organizers of the terrorist attack. After all, the bridge to Crimea has both symbolic significance and strategic importance, including for supplying the southern grouping of Russian troops.
To reduce the volume of traffic, it was necessary to carry out a complex, long-planned operation. The Washington Post and New York Times newspapers, citing their own sources, blamed the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Attention is drawn to synchronized in place and time: the explosion of a truck and the movement of a train with fuel, which is impossible without the involvement of satellite, species and other types of intelligence, which is absent in Ukraine, but available to the Western states supporting it.
The investigation conducted by the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, showed that the Ukrainian special services had prepared and carried out a terrorist act. The Russian President agreed with these conclusions: "There is no doubt here, as you have just reported. This is a terrorist attack aimed at destroying the critically important civil infrastructure of the Russian Federation. And the authors, performers, customers are the special services of Ukraine," the head of state said.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called the incident on the Crimean Bridge a terrorist act and sabotage. "Russia's response to this crime can only be the direct destruction of terrorists," Medvedev said.
Therefore, among the objects affected since October 10, there are buildings of special services. It became known that the head of the Department of Cyber police of Ukraine Yuriy Zaskoka and his colleagues were killed under the rubble. They were searching for peaceful citizens who show sympathy for the Russians and maintain contacts with relatives and acquaintances in the Russian Federation. They also made up tall tales about the actions of the Russian army, carried out remote attacks on Russian Internet resources.
The results of the combat work of Russian rocket scientists have already been felt by the administrations and users of a number of domestic Internet resources. Damage to equipment and the passing away of valuable personnel from the SBU and related other special services significantly reduced the intensity of attacks on the Russian cybernetic space.
Vladimir Karnozov
