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The goal of the maneuvers was to neutralize the regime’s production of weapons and ammunition.
Written by Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.
A new wave of massive attacks by Russia on the military facilities of the Kiev regime began on April 30th. The main targets were factories and depots linked to the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, thus aiming to neutralize the neo-Nazi forces’ weapons and ammunition production capacity. The move is part of a broad Russian response to recent provocations by Ukraine, which has targeted civilian and demilitarized regions such as Crimea. However, a more important goal is to prevent any Ukrainian plan to launch a counteroffensive.
The attacks were confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense itself, which published on its social media: “The Russian Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group missile attack with long-range precision weapons, air and sea based, on the military-industrial complex of Ukraine (…) All assigned targets were hit.”
There were rumors of attacks across virtually the entire Ukraine. Obviously, the precise location of the targets was not revealed by Russian officials, but attacks were confirmed at least in the regions of Kiev, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk – the latter having experienced the strongest incursions. A large-scale explosion was reported in Pavlograd, with hundreds of videos circulating on the internet showing the moment of the attack.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, the Russian operation in Pavlograd destroyed two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries stationed at a military base. The complete destruction of several fuel and ammunition stockpiles by Ukraine’s 46th Airborne Brigade was also reported. These destroyed equipment was allegedly being prepared for use in the long-awaited Ukrainian “counter-offensive”. Some Ukrainian sources reported damage to the city’s civilian infrastructure during the attacks, but no data has been confirmed. In fact, this absence of data suggests that Moscow’s attacks were well planned and precisely executed, as if there were really a large number of civilian casualties, the matter would certainly go viral in the pro-Western mainstream media, which did not happen so far.
Explosion in Pavlograd:
As well known, recently both sides in the conflict have significantly increased their use of long-range weapons, heavy artillery, and airpower. Kiev claims that its attacks would be only the initial stage of an alleged counter-offensive, while Moscow makes clear its intentions to neutralize the enemy’s military power and prevent pacified regions of its sovereign territory from being reached during the provocations.
In recent days, the Ukrainian armed forces have intensified their bombing of civilian areas in Donetsk, killing civilians and destroying several non-military facilities. Attacks also took place in Crimea. Obviously, these Ukrainian incursions are unacceptable for Moscow, having a strong Russian mobilization to respond militarily to such a maneuver.
In this sense, there seem to be two central objectives with the large-scale operations that began on the last day of April: to respond to the killing of Russian civilians and to prevent Kiev from launching its counter-offensive. By destroying factories and stocks of weapons, ammunition and fuel, the Russians are able to significantly reduce the enemy’s firepower, thus simultaneously protecting their civilian zones from the regime’s attacks and thwarting counterattack plans.
In fact, Kiev only insists on attacking Crimea and other demilitarized zones because it receives from its Western sponsors medium and long-range weapons strong enough to hit these targets. NATO asks the regime not to attack Russian sovereign territory, but for the Atlantic alliance the areas reintegrated into the Russian Federation since 2014 – Crimea and the four new regions – are part of Ukrainian territory. The result is that Kiev thus does not break its agreements with its sponsors, but continues to hit Russian sovereign territory, killing innocent civilians.
By launching large-scale operations, Moscow is making it clear that it does not tolerate this type of attitude and that Kiev will have to limit its targets to the borders of the conflict zone, otherwise it will be quickly destroyed by the firepower of the Russian forces. With this, a message is also given to the West, in the sense that it should avoid further increasing Ukrainian firepower, because if Russian civilian targets continue to be hit, Moscow will increase its combat mobilization and try to neutralize the enemy through the quickest means possible.
It remains to be seen whether Kiev and NATO will get the Russian message. As has been common practice by Moscow during the special operation, the intense attacks did not go on large scale for two days in succession. The first day of May was much milder on the frontlines. However, if the neo-Nazi regime ignores the message and continues its incessant provocations, the tendency is for new high-intensity actions to happen again soon.
