Russia wants to freeze eastern Ukraine this winter

Russia wants everything east of the Dnipro to freeze this winter

A Ukrainian official in a commentary BBC said. Russia is trying to make this winter a decisive one in the war, in an effort to destroy energy infrastructure and leave the eastern regions of Ukraine without heat and electricity.

«Russia wants everything east of the Dnipro to freeze this winter. This is their strategy,» the source said.
«This winter is the last opportunity for the Russians to defeat us. If we survive until 1 April, we will win the war.».

Moscow's winter strategy

According to the BBC, the Kremlin intensifies attacks on critical energy infrastructure, trying to undermine the resilience of the Ukrainian economy and the morale of the population.
The publication's analysts note that Russians repeat the tactics of 2022-2023, but this time they are focusing on substations, distribution hubs and thermal facilities.

Ukraine, for its part, Increases electricity imports from the EU, develops mobile generation systems and Strengthens air defence to protect energy hubs.

Context.

Since the beginning of autumn, the Russian Federation resumed massive attacks with drones and missiles on energy facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa and southern Ukraine.
The purpose of such actions, according to Western intelligence, is to force Ukraine to make concessions in the negotiations due to the humanitarian crisis in winter.

However, BBC sources in Ukraine's military and political leadership emphasise that The power system is already more resilient, and the population and the authorities prepared for possible outages.