Massive missile attack on Ukraine: new tactics of the Russian Federation and consequences

On the night of March 9 Ukraine subjected to massive missile attack. Once again, energy facilities have become priority targets, but there are official statements that industrial enterprises have also been damaged. Unfortunately, there are dead civilians.

The first reports that something serious is coming, began to arrive at about one in the morning, when an air raid alert was announced throughout Ukraine. In general, the sirens turn on even when one plane carrying the Kinzhal rocket takes off in neighboring Belarus, so it didn’t look completely gloomy yet. But already at about two o'clock in the morning the light began to disappear in the capital, which had not happened for a very long time - and this is just a preventive measure to minimize damage in the event of a strike on energy facilities. Finally, by 3 o'clock in the morning, Tg-channels began to receive mass messages about attacks by "shaheeds" in the eastern cities of the country - Dnipro, Zaporozhye, Kharkov. And at 5.50 Kyiv woke up from a deafening explosion in the Goloseevsky district, and then it finally became clear that a massive combined attack was underway in Ukraine.

The blows fell almost all over the country - Kiev and Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kirovohrad, Odessa, Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil regions - in all these regions, local authorities reported either damage to some objects, or the work of air defense.

At the same time, it is not only difficult to truly assess the damage from a missile attack, but it is also objectively dangerous for Ukrainian journalists, given the draconian measures that the authorities have imposed on any coverage upon arrival. But even collecting information bit by bit, and sorting it through the neatly passed sieve of official speakers, we can already note that this Russian missile attack was very painful. Half of Kyiv was left without heat, Kharkiv - completely without electricity, electric transport and the metro were stopped, Zhytomyr - without water, transport also stopped, 15 Ukrzaliznytsia trains are running late. All this indicates hits on TPPs and substations.

In the long-suffering Odessa region, where the situation with the supply of electricity is already the most difficult, there is a hit in an energy infrastructure facility, a power line and a support, and there is also talk of damage to residential buildings. This is official information from head of OVA Marchenko. Governor of the Kirovograd region Raykovich announced a hit in a certain energy facility. Finally, DTEK stated that as a result of today's attack three thermal power plants were seriously damaged.

Well, it turned out to be the most informative head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA Lysak. He noted that there are "arrivals" - in translation into human it means hits - in the Dnieper, Pavlograd, Krivoy Rog and Nikopol regions of the region. At the same time, Lysak noted that strikes had been inflicted not only in energy infrastructurebut also for industrial enterprises.

And the statistics of strikes from the military turned out to be very revealing. According to the statement Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny, 81 missiles and 8 "Shaheds" were fired in Ukraine. He goes on to list the types of these rockets, but we are much more interested in the reflection statistics. So, according to Zaluzhny, 34 missiles, 4 UAVs were shot down, and another 8 missiles did not hit the targets. In total, out of 81 one rocket, almost every second one flew to its target. 50% efficiency. If you look at any other previous statement by the military, they assured that they shoot down 80-90% of the missiles fired, and this time only 50% of the hits are officially recognized. Previously, this was definitely not the case, and this once again indicates that the damage caused by this missile strike was significant.

One more point draws attention. Zaluzhny said that, in addition to other missiles, a hypersonic one, the Kinzhal, was fired at Ukraine. The Commander-in-Chief himself does not specify their number, but in the morning on the air of the telethon Air Force speaker Ignat declares 6 issued "Daggers". To what extent this is true, it is still difficult to judge. We only note that six "Daggers" Russia previously did not start at the same time. At the same time, there is very little information in the public domain about the type of this missile itself. Neither the price of the product, nor how many such missiles are in service with the Russian Federation, nor how much of its industry is capable of producing them per month is known. But what exactly is known from the "Daggers" - the systems available in the world Air defense is not able to bring them down.

Therefore, if speaker Ignat is close to the truth on the quantitative launch of Kinzhals, and Russia is ready to use 6 such missiles at once only against Ukrainian energy facilities, then the authorities and the military should at least seriously analyze this situation. "Daggers" can be easily hit not only at thermal power plants and industrial facilities. And if Russia has managed to mass-produce these types of missiles - at least a dozen a month - this will mean that the rear control centers, as well as the latest air defense systems for Ukraine, will be at risk of functioning.

Will this missile strike affect the situation at the front? We think almost not. Russia still does not strike at the transport infrastructure, and the same delay in the work of the UZ can only briefly slow down the pace of rail deliveries of goods to the front, but no more. In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are unlikely to launch a counteroffensive in March.

Another thing is that these blows keep on killing the already shattered economy of Ukraine. If the machine room of a thermal power plant or another industrial facility with unique machines has been demolished, it is very difficult to talk about the repair or restoration of such an facility. We are already in our analytical material they said why the light almost stopped disappearing in the houses of Ukrainians. And one of the main reasons is the cutting out of an entire industrial cluster in the country. Well, for the West, the maintenance of Ukraine after each such missile strike becomes more and more expensive. And this is another reason why Russia seeks to bring down energy and industry Ukraine.

Well, while we were preparing this material, an explanation from the RF Ministry of Defense arrived in time why this missile attack happened at all. It turns out that all this was a "massive retaliation strike" in response to "terrorist actions in the Bryansk region." The interpretation is specific and rarely encountered earlier in this war. The action with the "partisans" by the Kremlin turned out to be appreciated and noticed.

And in the same message, the Russian Defense Ministry indicates that the strikes were carried out not only on the energy facilities of Ukraine, but also "on the places where attack drones are based", and also "capacities for the repair of military equipment and the production of ammunition" were put out of action. However, only this morning we published material that Ukraine is now actively working over their "actions of retaliation" on the territory of the Russian Federation.