Noted Russian military expert Vladislav [“Vlad”] Shurygin to Izvestia newspaper: ‘The Russian Armed Forces have begun to conduct combat operations for real, this is how it should have been done from the very beginning.
Now we are striking at the infrastructure. First of all, targeting energy facilities, communications and railways. All these targets are vulnerable, and we have every opportunity to impact them.
Leaving the enemy without electricity, we will leave him without light and communications, as well as without properly functioning railways. This fighting must be continued. This is feared in the West, which is why they’ve raised such a cry.
Problems with electricity will disrupt entire logistics of the Ukrainian military — system for transporting personnel, military equipment, ammunition, related cargo, as well as the functioning of military and repair plants. It will become easier for our units at the front.
So far, there is shock in Ukraine, but they will be able to restore the destroyed facilities. In order to comprehensively destroy [Ukraine’s] military logistics, you need to work in this vein for a week and a half or two.’
We will see how this new strategy works under a new general. It worked for us against Serbia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/belgrade052599.htm
BELGRADE, May 24 – NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia’s power grid left millions of people without electricity or water service today, bringing the war over Kosovo more directly into the lives of civilians across the country.
Three consecutive nights of air attacks caused extensive blackouts in Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Nis, the three largest cities in Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic. In contrast with previous attacks on the power supply – in which allied warplanes triggered temporary outages by dropping carbon-fiber filaments that shorted out electrical lines – NATO forces this time struck at Serbia’s five major power-transmission stations with high-explosive munitions, causing damage that could take weeks to repair.
Officials at the Pentagon and at NATO headquarters in Belgium said allied jets deliberately attacked the power grid, aiming to shut it down more completely and for longer periods than at any time previously in the two-month-old air campaign. U.S. officials estimated the attacks had shut off power to about 80 percent of Serbia.
Allied officials said the attacks were intended to disrupt operations by the Serb-led Yugoslav military in Kosovo, the focus of the conflict, and not target civilians. But by increasing the hardship of ordinary citizens, alliance leaders also appeared to be seeking to encourage public disaffection with the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Here in Belgrade, where rage against NATO during the initial days of the three-month-old bombing campaign has lapsed into weariness for many residents, the prospect of sustained blackouts brought renewed anger toward the alliance. Some cited the power outages as evidence that the genuine aim of NATO is not to expel Yugoslav troops and Serbian special police units from Kosovo, but to punish civilians and wreck the country.
The attacks also slashed water reserves by damaging pumps and cutting electricity to the few pumps that were still operative. Belgrade’s water utility said that reserves of drinking water had been reduced to 8 percent, according to the Beta news agency, and that 60 percent of the city was without water service. The agency said authorities were trying to restore water to most city residents by midnight.
A NATO spokesman, Peter Daniel, insisted that allied warplanes were not targeting the Yugoslav water system or main power plants. Instead, he said, the attacks were aimed at “the transformers and the edges, so to speak, of the electricity-generating system.”
Still, military officials confirmed that the objective of using conventional explosives against parts of the power grid was to cause longer-lasting disruptions of electrical service. “It’s fair to say we made the decision that we’re going to attack some elements of it in a way that’s going to take it down for longer than it would have been,” said a senior officer at the Pentagon.
By focusing the attacks more on distribution lines than on main production components, the officer said, the damage should take weeks, not years to repair. He said Yugoslav authorities have access to “auxiliary power supplies for many of these facilities,” but he added that the latest attacks should prove more challenging for the Yugoslav military than the brief outages caused by the filament drops.
That weapon is a highly classified munition that throws out clusters of bomblets packed with chemically treated strands that act like lightning when they touch an electrical structure, causing widespread outages but no permanent damage.
The strikes have been limited thus far to electrical facilities in Serbia proper, the Pentagon officer said, but NATO commanders are understood to be planning to extend the attacks to Kosovo – a Serbian province from which Belgrade government forces have driven hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians in a drive to crush an independence movement there.
On October 8, Putin appointed General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of the Ukraine invasion. After eight months, Putin finally realizes he needs a overall commander of the operation.
Two days later, Russia launches over 100 cruise missiles and drones on civilian targets in Ukraine. According to Forbes, the October 10 attack had 84 cruise missiles and 24 drones, for a total cost of $400 to $700 million to knock out the power for a few days. According to Ukraine, 43 cruise missiles and 13 drones were shot down. Reportedly, one cruise missile was shot down by a man portable SAM (video). That can happen if the missile flies right over an alert AA crew. During the 1990 Persian Gulf War a few Tomahawks cruise missiles were shot down by Iraq this way. Then two days later, Ukraine shoot down 4 KA-52; attack helicopters, and is getting the photographic evidence to back up those claims. Maybe 2 more helicopters were damaged or shot down and a Mig-29 crashed due to mechanical malfunction.
Even on the low end of total cost and minimal missiles and drones shot down, that is a lot of munitions expended and aircraft lost for no military gain.That is with the existing Russian weapons and Ukraine air defenses. If you want to call air dominance go ahead. Ukraine is going to get improved air defenses, and like everything else they have received so far, figure out how to make it work.
The greatest outcome of the strike is to convince the US and Europe the only acceptable outcome is driving Russia out of Ukraine. This strike just killed any chance of a negotiated settlement. When Russia offered Germany to sell natural gas through the functioning Nord lines, Germany said no thanks. This winter is going to hurt, all nations are going to get through it. Then when spring and summer comes the economic impacts are going to really start coming home to Russia.
Enjoy Russia's "success" over this while you can.