Quote (Black XistenZ @ Nov 6 2022 03:50pm)
I think this is a misrepresentation of how things actually went down. Russia was never able to establish proper air superiority and Kyiv's missile defense system seems to have been doing a good job. What presumably turned the tide in this regard are the Iranian suicide drones, which are hard to detect early and can be sent in swarms where it's enough if just 10-20% survive the AA and reach the target. If this interpretation is correct, the timing of Ukraine's infrastructure breaking down was due to a Russian desperation move proving unexpectedly effective, rather than due to brilliant long-term strategy.
I don't think any of this really adds up. Most of the damage is still chalked up to cruise missiles or artillery strikes. The towns completely leveled were done by normal bombardment. Drone actions have been more sporadic and used for public spectacle. And there's really no evidence Ukraine has been successful in deflecting most missile attacks. We can know for a fact that Russia did
not bombard the civilian infrastructure of population centers like Kiev during the first 8 or whatever months of the war, but then in the past few weeks has turned around and done exactly that. Its not like Russia kept trying and failing to do it. The only reasonable assessment is that they have now
chosen to do it. And we can try to decipher the reasons of 'why now'
Even the Ukrainian propaganda media openly acknowledges that the attacks in the past few days on Kiev were missiles, not drones.
Quote
On the morning of Monday Oct. 31, Russia launched another wave of missile attacks against Ukrainian critical infrastructure. The weapons targeted the power grid and knocked entire city districts offline. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said some areas of the capital were left without electricity and 80 percent of Kyiv residents were left without a water supply.
“Currently, due to the emergency situation in Kyiv, 80 percent of consumers remain without water,” the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. “Engineers are also working to restore power to 350,000 homes in Kyiv that were left without electricity.”
Kyiv city authorities have asked citizens to stock up on water.
“Please stock up on water from the nearest pump rooms and points of sale. Specialists are doing everything possible to return water to the apartments of Kyiv residents,” stated an official message of the Kyiv administration.
The authorities said that there are 350,000 apartments in Kyiv that have been left without electricity due to Russian shelling. Engineers are working to restore the power supply.
Kharkiv
According to Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov, Russians hit a critical infrastructure facility the same morning, which disconnected power to the subway and ground transportation in Kharkiv.
“We have managed to launch the Kholodnohirsk-Zavodska line, and replaced trolleybuses and trams with buses,” he said.
According to Terekhov, the city is also having problems with its water supply. Power engineers and utility companies are working to eliminate the problem.
Russia reportedly fired more than 50 missiles at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure on Oct. 31, of which 44 were intercepted by Ukraine military.
Based on normal ratios, I'd guess this translates to "Russia fired 8 missiles and hit 8 targets", because every time Russia shoots missiles the Ukrainian media claims they shot down 90% of them and the ones that got through were just a small fraction, except they don't post any evidence. But when they shoot at a missile they post tons of videos of it to social media, even if they failed to stop it.