Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia's ongoing strike campaign against Ukrainian energy facilities is partly aimed at destroying the Ukrainian defense industry.
What is the purpose of Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy?
As analysts of the American Institute for the Study of War point out, this confirms ISW's current assessment that Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities are aimed at worsening Ukraine's defense and industrial potential.
The recent Russian strike campaign is undermining Ukraine's power generation capacity... Putin likely hopes to prevent Ukraine's defense industry from becoming nearly self-sufficient in the long term, as a strong defense industry can put Ukraine in a good position to defend against future Russian aggression and greatly reduce Ukraine's dependence on Western aid, analysts write.
According to ISW, the development of the defense industrial base over time may allow Ukraine to maintain defense against Russia and long-term national security needs with a significant reduction in foreign military aid.
ISW continues to assess that the US will not need to send large aid packages to Ukraine indefinitely if Ukraine can sufficiently expand its defense industrial capacity, but that Western provision of air defense systems and missiles to Ukraine is critical to Ukraine's ability to protect its energy, infrastructure and the development of the defense industry from Russian strikes, analysts note.
Strikes on Ukrainian energy
Over the past few weeks, Russia has been methodically destroying Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Dnipro HPP was struck, Kharkiv CHP-5 and many other facilities were destroyed.
During a massive missile attack on Ukraine on April 11, Russia completely destroyed the Trypil TPP in the Kyiv region. It was the largest supplier of electricity in the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions.
Subsequently, Centernergo announced that the entire generation of the enterprise was destroyed as a result of the attack.
