The Russian Ministry of Defense announced this morning: “In accordance with orders received, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have begun inflicting massed strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities, in response to the Kiev regime’s continuing attacks on Russia’s civilian infrastructure and fuel and energy complex.” Analysts expect the targeting of not only power plants, but also substations and transmission lines in Western Ukraine by which Ukraine imports electricity from European countries.
The announced escalation will come on the heels of an intensification during the past week of Russian drone and missile bombardment of military and industrial targets across Ukraine. According to an Aug. 28 Ministry of Defense statement, facilities of the FirePoint company, which makes weapons used for strikes deep inside Russian territory, have been targeted in the Kiev Region. Those include warehouses housing Ukraine’s homemade (but UK-assisted) Flamingo long-range cruise missiles, components for producing their solid-fuel boosters and warheads, and components for FirePoint’s FP-1/FP-2 long-distance drones. It was one of these, a FirePoint warehouse in the village of Myla west of Kiev, where a huge secondary detonation of explosives Friday night and the subsequent all-day fire destroyed the adjacent residential neighborhood. At least 37 civilians were killed and dozens more wounded. Acting head of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was compelled to blame officials who had placed an ammunition depot in a residential area, writing on X, “Those who allowed this to happen must be held accountable for their decisions.”
The Russian escalation also continues to target seaports “involved in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” according to the Ministry of Defense. While the three major Black Sea ports in the Odessa Region are practically out of commission, other targets include smaller port facilities on the Danube River where Ukraine’s southernmost area borders Romania, and trucks transporting goods in the southern Odessa Region—all workarounds in the absence of the big ports.
Ukraine’s Agricultural Minister Taras Vysotsky claimed during an Aug. 28 briefing at Interfax-Ukraine that 90% of Ukraine’s modern storage facilities for various types of goods have been destroyed by the increased strikes, reported the Kiev Independent. That astounding figure is not confirmed, but the current escalation is in accordance with what Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on July13: that the Russian response to Ukraine’s attacks on the RF’s civilians and non-military facilities would be “mirror-like,” but “several times more powerful.”
