Russia shifts emphasis in strikes on Ukraine: Lutsenko names main target for October

UNIAN, photo - DSNS, screenshot In October, the energy sector will be the priority for strikes by Russian occupiers due to the start of the heating season. This was said to UNIAN by Ihor Lutsenko, a serviceman and co-founder of the Center for Support of Aerial Reconnaissance.

Answering a question about the logic of the combined attack last night, he emphasized that this makes it harder for Ukraine to defend.

"When the radar is filled with a bunch of targets at different speeds, it’s a much more chaotic situation than, for example, one fast or one slow target," the expert explained.

Targets of the Russians

Regarding what unites the enemy strikes last night, since the Russians attacked different regions and cities of Ukraine, Lutsenko expressed the view that the energy sector was the focus of the enemy.

"In October this should be a priority for the Russians - the start of the heating season. They saw that with just a few decorative explosions on Kyiv's bridges they could create, so to speak, new political processes in Ukraine. I think this pushes them to continue working in this direction," he said.

Strategic aviation

In addition, when asked about what was raised from Olenegorsk about Tu-95 and Tu-160, and what role strategic aviation plays in such attacks, Lutsenko explained that "the strategists" are infrastructure for launching certain types of missiles that the Russians have.

"It is good that it is so complex and that it has limited resources, practically non-renewable. And the fact that it operates exactly as it does — we know in advance that launches of missiles will occur — makes it much less dangerous than ground launch complexes that can inflict more sudden strikes," he noted.

Criticism of the Russian command

Also, regarding the claim by the Russian milblogger Fighterbomber that drones are less effective than missiles, and his criticism of the Russian command, Lutsenko noted that there is "no deep thinking" in this post.

"He simply writes that it is better to launch 20 ballistic and cruise missiles than a few hundred drones. And here he is right, unfortunately, in the sense that we currently have no way to effectively combat ballistic missiles. And because of this ballistic missiles mostly achieve their targets," the serviceman said.

At the same time, according to him, one should take into account that the drones that threatened bridges in Kyiv did not cause such a "fuss" because of their speed, but because they could be guided by aiming, which was provided not only by systems like CRPA antennas, but also by a video channel.

"They can be guided to targets fairly accurately through mesh networks and other means. Accuracy also plays a very big role. If you increase the precision of these small drones, they become, as we see, a very significant lever of political influence on the process," Lutsenko emphasized.

Night strike on Ukraine

As UNIAN reported, in the night of 7 October, Russian occupiers launched a massive combined strike on Ukraine using ballistic and cruise missiles. Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Kremenchuk, among others.

Russian occupiers struck the city of Pryluky in Chernihiv region with missiles, resulting in casualties and many injured.

Yuriy Ihnat, head of the Communications Directorate of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, noted that during the attack the Russian troops attacked from different directions with different means. Each means had its flight parameters, direction of movement, etc.

From 48 cruise missiles, 39 were intercepted, the fate of six more units is being determined. And from 130 drones, 117 were shot down, among which a large share were jet-propelled.