Russia changes tactics of massive missile and drone attacks on Ukraine – UK intelligence
The UK Ministry of Defense said this in an intelligence update on Ukraine published on X, Ukrinform reports.
"Since August 2024, it is highly likely Russia has chosen to take time to build stocks between strikes and then launch in larger, less frequent strike waves, rather than the more frequent smaller attacks conducted earlier in the year," the update said.
It added that the composition and target set of the December 12-13 attack was similar to previous attacks, focusing on Ukrainian critical national infrastructure and industry, whilst also attempting to suppress Ukrainian air defense and airfields by saturating them with One-Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Systems (OWA UAS).
The ministry also stressed that Russia "retains the ability and the stocks to allow such assets to be employed in smaller numbers, as a punitive measure, with little or no warning."
On the night of December 12-13, 2024, Russia conducted a large-scale multi-axis attack into Ukraine.
"As with the attacks that occurred in November and prior, it involved Russian Long Range Aviation assets and Russian fixed-wing Tactical Aviation assets launching multiple types of air-launched cruise-missile and air-launched ballistic missile systems," the update said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian forces had fired 93 missiles at Ukraine during the attack. Eighty-one missiles were shot down, including 11 cruise missiles intercepted by F-16s. The Russians also used almost 200 drones.
