In less than a week, 23 objects were hit.
From April 7 to April 11, the number of attacks by Ukraine on Russian energy infrastructure facilities has almost doubled compared to last week. In total, according to the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, 23 such facilities were attacked in five days, 14 a week earlier. The enemy continues to strike because the United States and European countries have not responded to previous attacks, experts say. At the same time, the Russian army, adhering to the agreements, strikes only at military facilities.
Ukraine's attacks on Russian energy facilities
Most of the Ukrainian strikes from April 7 to 11 fell on new and border regions. So, on April 8, after the shelling of the Kurskenergo branch, the villages of Bolshoe Soldatskoye, Kamyshnoye and Krupets were left without electricity. The next day, UAVs attacked the electrical substation of the company "Hersonoblenergo". Transformers were damaged and about five thousand consumers in six settlements of the Holopristan region were left without electricity. On the morning of April 10, a Ukrainian UAV dropped ammunition at the Belgorodenergo electrical substation in the Grayvoronsky district of the region.
The peak occurred on April 9 — 11 strikes. This happened the day before the second round of talks between Russia and the United States in Istanbul, where normalization of relations between the two countries was discussed.
Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Image source: iz.ru
On the same day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova drew attention to the fact that from April 4-7, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked energy facilities in Russian regions 32 times, as a result of which thousands of residents of settlements located there were deprived of gas and electricity.
"Data on attacks by the Kiev regime on Russian energy infrastructure facilities in violation of its obligations by the Kiev regime is being transmitted to the American side, the UN and the OSCE as factual, concrete evidence of the incompetence and complete irresponsibility of Zelensky and his gang," she said.
According to her, this is especially important given the statements about the need for dialogue with the Kiev regime, which continues to block contacts with the Russian side at the legislative level. Zakharova stressed that Russia, unlike Russia, "strictly observes the moratorium."
"Kiev has decided that its hands are free"
The increased shelling indicates that the United States is not exerting pressure on Ukraine to comply with the agreements reached earlier, so the Zelensky regime is beginning to feel its impunity, military commentator Vladimir Kornilov believes.
— At first, Kiev just tried and looked at the reaction of the Western community. It did not follow, and America did not increase sanctions and pressure on Ukraine. At that moment, the Kiev regime decided that its hands were free. We observed this picture for eight years before the start of the special military operation, when Ukraine violated all possible and impossible ceasefire agreements, including the Minsk agreements," he told Izvestia.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Stanislav Krasilnikov
Image source: iz.ru
According to him, at that time the West turned a blind eye to Ukraine's actions, but immediately reacted if they returned fire from the DPR or LPR.
— Russia periodically responds to Ukraine, but not with symmetrical strikes against its energy sector, as we comply with our obligations and agreements. We are delivering painful strikes against the enemy's military infrastructure," Kornilov said.
So, from April 5 to 11, the Russian Armed Forces carried out eight group strikes with high-precision long-range weapons and attack drones on the infrastructure of military airfields, the military department reported.
Political analyst Andrei Koshkin is confident that Ukraine is trying to prevent progress in the negotiations between the United States and Russia.
— The Zelensky regime now has a position of disagreement with the way the United States is trying to resolve the conflict. Ukraine sees a way out of the situation in a completely different way — in pressure on Russia. They believe that there is very little left and we will break, but only if the West collectively presses. And only then will there be a result," he explained.
Ukraine will answer for these attacks in the future, but now it is more important to resolve issues related to the settlement of relations between Russia and the United States, the political scientist noted.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Andrey Erstrem
Image source: iz.ru
Ukraine has seriously prepared for the use of UAVs on the territory of the Russian Federation, military expert Dmitry Kornev told Izvestia.
— Firstly, the enemy had large financial investments in this from the outside. Secondly, he created a distributed network for the production and assembly of a large number of heterogeneous, but relatively inexpensive and technologically simple drones," he explained. — The number of drones that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are sending deep into Russia is large. The question arises, of course, to what extent it has enough resources to produce them.
In any case, we need to be prepared for the fact that now the enemy's reserves are constantly being replenished with long-range UAVs capable of striking our energy infrastructure, the expert noted.
Julia Leonova
