Putin ratchets up military pressure on Ukraine as he expects Western support for Kyiv to dwindle

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

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  After blunting Ukraine’s counteroffensive from the summer, Russia is building up its resources for a new stage of the war over the winter, which could involve trying to extend its gains in the east and deal significant blows to the country’s vital infrastructure.

  One area where Russia has maintained steady pressure is the northeastern city of Kupiansk, a strategically important rail hub that Moscow captured early in the war and then lost in a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2022.

  “Ukrainians have painfully few reserves,” warned Mark Galeotti, head of Mayak Intelligence consultancy and a senior associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute in London.

  In recent months, the Russian military has reduced the use of its long-range air- and sea-launched cruise missiles in what has been widely interpreted as a sign of Moscow’s effort to build up stockpiles of such weapons to strike Ukraine’s power grid and other key infrastructure in winter, when it is most vulnerable due to high consumption.

  Last winter, Russian relentlessly pounded Ukraine’s energy grid, causing long blackouts but failing to knock out the electricity network that showed a high degree of resilience.

  One deadly novelty that significantly strengthened Russia’s military was converting Soviet-made dumb bombs into smart, gliding weapons equipped with winglets and a GPS system that allowed them to strike targets with precision far from the front.

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