Defense official in Kyiv says Ukraine is preparing for “massive” missile strikes – POLITICO

A senior defense official in Kyiv said Ukraine was preparing for three or four “massive” missile strikes from Russia, while the Ukrainian president’s office indicated that Moscow might wait for cooler weather to “deliver the most sensitive blow”.

Even as he gave a warning about impending attacks, Oleksey Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Kyiv’s forces are able to shoot down up to 90 percent of Russian missiles, thanks to Western air defense weapons supplies. Made Danilov comments in an online interview on Friday.

Ukraine is still recovering from the latest Russian missile attack on the country’s energy infrastructure on November 23, which plunged much of the country, including Kyiv, into darkness.

Despite efforts to restore energy supplies, Ukraine’s largest electricity producer, DTEK, warned On Saturday about emergency power outages in the capital as well as major cities such as Odessa and Dnipro.

Danilov also said that the amount of Russian missile weapons is rapidly decreasing, and Moscow is forced to “seek additional supplies around the world.”

Mykhailo Podolak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, believes that Russia is changing the tactics of its missile strikes on Ukraine.

Podolyak said in an exclusive statement that the Russian forces “are waiting for the frost to increase … until the night temperature drops to minus 8-10 degrees, and at this moment they want to deliver the most sensitive blow to Ukraine.” Online interview Friday night.

Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW). He said that Russia may be trying to generate another wave of refugees with the aim of “pressuring Western officials into making pre-emptive concessions because the Russian military has not been able to achieve strategic success.”