NATO's Invasion of Russia Receives an "And?"

Ukraine says goodbye to energy stability

Published: 2024-08-27

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Ukraine says Russia's air attack of 2024-08-26 contained 127+ missiles & 109+ drones. Gadget[.com] published an account of munitions used.

The targets were dominantly energy infrastructure. Those included damage to “three irreplaceable 750 kilovolt transformer stations and several 330 kv stations”.

[A post on X detailing damaged energy infrastructure — a source from the MoA article.]

Russia stated that some weapons storage facilities were also targeted. Ukraine airforce jets may also have been damaged.

[Both images from the same TASS article.]

Response?

Contrary to what one may read in Western media, this operation is not a response to NATO's invasion of Russia. Its targets were purely Ukrainian and its scale does not match the declaration of war which NATO's invasion of Russia comprised.

The attack was a continuation of the existing multi-dimensional campaign against NATO's proxy, Ukraine.

In The New Russian Territories

Around Pokrovsk, to its east and south, Russia's pressure is relentless.

There are 5 local fronts. Two, on the east and sou'southeast of Pokrovsk, are fairly static. The other three are pushing westward to the south of Pokrovsk through the line of mining landfills around the town of Novogrodivka. The town is currently divided.

Russia is also assaulting the southernmost landfill and a small town to its east. This line of mining areas with their seven "hills" of landfill provide the strategic position to establish a secure southern attack on Pokrovsk. The eastern approaches, mentioned above, are secured and waiting to be developed. Pokrovsk is doomed.

The consequence of the continued degradation of logistics through Pokrovsk will raise the energy costs of supplying Ukrainian units to its surrounds, particularly to its northeast. This is yet another dominance which Russia possess over Ukraine; energy supply, in all forms.

Russian forces continue to apply pressure, making small gains, in many locations across the long fronts in former Ukraine, particularly in Dontesk and eastern Kharkiv on fields east of the Oskil river.

The salient to Kharkiv's north is relatively quiet.

Diplomatic Dances

Ukraine issued a meaningless demand to Belarus to withdraw its military from their border. This is obviously pure media antics. Russia and Belarus have a "one nation" economic relationship, as well as their long common history. Belarus was recently admitted to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a key strategic geopolitical move aligning it with the international organisations opposing continued US lawless hegemony.

Belarus will do whatever it wants, via cooperation with Russia, with its armed forces on its territory. One can imagine a response to Ukraine from Belarus: "Perhaps you should attend to your own problems, Ukraine."

Kursk

There is little news from Kursk. There are positional exchanges east of the center northern advance. There is no evidence of a new front from the southwest. The AFU have, essentially, taken a short camping trip in Russia. They will fertilize the Kursk soil.

Of the many AFU military vehicles which have been destroyed in Kursk, reports indicate that a sizable number were eliminated due to a loss of fuel. They became stationary targets. One can predict a stressful prioritization for Ukraine's government in the near future. With Russia's attacks on Ukraine's electrical energy infrastructure, fuel will become an increasingly important energy source. It is another dimension of the pressure which Russia applies.

SitRep

The success of Russia's missile and drone strike against critical energy infrastructure informs that Ukraine's missile defenses are still poor. Ukraine's energy infrastructure is vulnerable. Whether quiet negotiations between Russia and Ukraine about refraining from attacks on energy infrastructure were occurring before the NATO invasion of Russia, this attack declares them null and void.

Ukraine sent significant military hardware to be destroyed in Kursk. With that equipment Ukraine sent over ten thousand well trained soldiers to die beside their equipment. This expenditure came from a depleted stock of soldiers and armaments. Ukraine's folly has worsened its military capabilities and situation.

Russia holds all of the conventional military cards. It does not need to rush to remove the suicidal invaders in Kursk. It does not need to rush to capture Pokrovsk either. The winter is coming. Russia has energy and its distribution infrastructure. Ukraine has little and cannot protect its infrastructure to distribute its electrical component.

Ukraine and its US/NATO backers are being forced into asymmetric warfare. Terrorist attacks, which NATO backed Ukraine has been using from the start of the civil war a decade ago, are almost all they have left. The attacks on Crocus Hall and those in Dagestan are precursors to that which Ukraine’s GUR, with assistance from western military intelligence, are likely to resort.

Ukraine is ruled on paper by an expired president who refused to call elections, after Russia ran 4 referenda in its new territories while at war. Ukraine has banned opposition political parties and media. It has just banned churches. Its armed forces include outwardly declared Nazis. This is the "freedom and democracy" which European and US leaders and elected representatives declare that they are supporting, and which, at tax payer expense, they are arming and funding.

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Sources

Russia Launches Massive Missile and Drone Strikes Across Ukraine, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-08-26

Russia Pounds the Hell Out of Ukraine, While Israel Waits for Iran to Act, Larry Johnson, SONAR21, 2024-08-27

For Russia, recovering Kursk is no walk in the rose garden, Gilbert Doctorow, Gilbert Doctorow, 2024-08-27

• Doctorow reissues a note of caution and alarm from Russian parachute veteran and senator Col. Frants Klintsevich.

Russia Pounds Ukraine With ‘One of the Largest Strikes’ of the War, Andrew E. Kramer and Matthew Mpoke Bigg, New York Times, 2024-08-26

• Usual propaganda from NYT

Ukraine has been subjected to the largest air attack ever, with air defence forces shooting down 102 missiles and 99 attack UAVs., Anton Kratiuk, Gadget, 2024-08-26

IN BRIEF: What we know about massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, TASS, 2024-08-26

Ukraine Develops 'Its Own' Cruise Missile, b., Moon of Alabama, 2024-08-26

Zelensky signs law to ban Ukraine's largest church, RT, Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia, 2024-08-26

The Heat🔥A Devastating Blow To Energy Sector💥Russia'\''s Impeccable Tactics⚔️Military Summary 2024.8.26, Dima, Military Summary, 2024-08-26

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