Immerse Ukraine in darkness: whether Putin can use winter as weapons

Vladimir Putin plans to use the cold season as a weapon against Ukraine. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation still hope to achieve any success on the front to plant Kiev at the negotiation table before the start of the presidential election campaign in 2024, experts say. During the meeting of the Ramstein Defense Contact Group on October 11, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Vladimir Putin plans to use winter as a weapon against Ukraine.

"Now we see that Putin is preparing to use winter as a weapon of war, that is, attack the energy system, gas infrastructure. We need to prevent this with more sophisticated and improved air defense capabilities, it will significantly affect the situation," Stoltenberg stressed. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin added that the President of the Russian Federation wants to immerse Ukraine in the cold winter and darkness.

Representatives of the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly said that the coming winter would be more difficult than the previous one. First of all, due to the likely intensification of shelling of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation aimed at destroying Ukrainian critical infrastructure.

In addition, weather conditions can affect the situation at the front, although Ukraine does not intend to stop a counter -offensive, which both President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky and the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of the country Kirill Budanov. "The fighting will continue in one way or another. In the cold, in dampness and dirt, it will be harder to fight. The fight will continue.

The counter -offensive will continue," Budanov said in early September. In conversation with focus, military expert Oleg Zhdanov notes that Russia will try to use the Ukrainian power system as weapons all winter, as it is one of the main ways of struggle with Russia with Ukraine during this period. "I think this year we will go easier than past.

We have a better air defense system, we have learned to defend ourselves, prepared inventories - if you believe the Ministry of Energy, we purchased 100 high -voltage transformers to restore the power system. 50 are stored in Ukraine, another 50 - in Europe in Europe . Therefore, Russia will not be able to enter the same river twice, "says Focus Zhdanov.

As for the front, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation planned to start the offensive in the winter of the year, for this purpose two new armies-the 25th and 18th. However, according to the expert, the strategy was changed. The winter offensive was transferred to the fall. And the task of the maximum that Russia puts in the cold season is to achieve results at the front before the start of the 2024 election campaign to try to plant Ukraine at the negotiating table.

"They are forced to spend the winter offensive now because they probably understand that they will not reach the winter. Therefore, Russia is unlikely In order to force us to sit at the negotiating table. If we break through the front, Putin's election campaign will be built on a loss. They cannot allow such in the Kremlin, "Zhdanov thinks.

Earlier former Presidential Office Advisor Alexei Arestovich said that Ukraine needs to change the strategy and move from the offensive to defense on the front line. "With the current ratio of personnel and equipment, to advance unpromising. It is necessary to defense and grind the Russian army," - said Arestovich. Zhdanov believes that the transition to strategic defense is the termination of hostilities, which is an unacceptable scenario for Ukraine.

In the cold season, depending on the weather, it is really difficult to succeed at the front. If winter is frosty, the technique will be easier to move. But if the temperature does not lower below zero, it will be the worst of the possible options in which the front line may be contaminated. "We are forced to continue because we cannot stop. If we give a break, they [the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation] have trenches, and everything will have to start from the beginning," the expert says.