Russia's missile and drone assault on February 3 cost $324.8 million, targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, with $190 million more than prior strikes.
The pertinent question is why isn’t russia using those weapons on the frontline?
What can russia permanently accomplish here other than stochastic murder and terror?
No matter how much damage they do they can never occupy cities with this strategy, they can only temporarily deny Ukraine them at extreme expenditure.
This is a poorly disguised play to try to win through diplomatic concessions what russia could never win on the battlefield. It is terrorism which is what the materially weak do when they cannot fight a war.
The pertinent question is why isn’t russia using those weapons on the frontline?
Because thats hard.
EDIT: a little add-on. The civilian infrastructure is huge and spread out, so pretty much impossible to defend. It also doesn’t move and isn’t hardened. You can plan a strike on powerlines and transformers from your bathroom with google maps.
On the other hand, the frontline is, by definition, defended. It moves and it’s usually more resistant to damage as well.
Btw what Russia is doing to Ukraine is my main argument nowadays for advancing the Energy systems. To be safe from attacks we need to turn out centralized systems into decentralized ones that allow for failures.
IMO batteries and solar play a huge role in that. (As might electric cars, when I can use them as battery).
I do think in a few years Ukraine will have one of the most resilient Energy grids in Europe, just by necessity.
The deployable microgrid makes use of multiple energy inputs, containing a diesel generator and battery energy storage system along with the perovskite solar cells. The microgrids were part of the US Department of Defense’s Cyber Fortress security demonstration in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in August 2025. The demonstration was attended by US Army operational energy specialists, and private sector partners such as Amazon Web Services.
“By strengthening operational energy resilience, US-made perovskite solar technology can directly address the growing power demands of the modern battlefield and enhance overall military readiness,” said Dr. Andre Slonopas, cyber fortress lead with the US Army.
The only reason I can think of is they just straight up don’t have (competent) frontline soldiers and commanders to capitalize on the advantage the weapons would create.
You can’t hold ground with just missiles and drones.
But also, I’m not knowledgeable in military theory, much less modern one. There’s probably more issues at play there.
The pertinent question is why isn’t russia using those weapons on the frontline?
What can russia permanently accomplish here other than stochastic murder and terror?
No matter how much damage they do they can never occupy cities with this strategy, they can only temporarily deny Ukraine them at extreme expenditure.
This is a poorly disguised play to try to win through diplomatic concessions what russia could never win on the battlefield. It is terrorism which is what the materially weak do when they cannot fight a war.
Because thats hard.
EDIT: a little add-on. The civilian infrastructure is huge and spread out, so pretty much impossible to defend. It also doesn’t move and isn’t hardened. You can plan a strike on powerlines and transformers from your bathroom with google maps.
On the other hand, the frontline is, by definition, defended. It moves and it’s usually more resistant to damage as well.
Btw what Russia is doing to Ukraine is my main argument nowadays for advancing the Energy systems. To be safe from attacks we need to turn out centralized systems into decentralized ones that allow for failures.
IMO batteries and solar play a huge role in that. (As might electric cars, when I can use them as battery).
I do think in a few years Ukraine will have one of the most resilient Energy grids in Europe, just by necessity.
Yeah, alternative energy provides resilience if done right.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/10/28/us-army-tests-swift-solar-perovskite-tech-in-deployable-microgrid/
The only reason I can think of is they just straight up don’t have (competent) frontline soldiers and commanders to capitalize on the advantage the weapons would create.
You can’t hold ground with just missiles and drones.
But also, I’m not knowledgeable in military theory, much less modern one. There’s probably more issues at play there.
Yep I think they know their best hope is to wear the Ukrainians down into some kind of concession and this kind of terror is all they got.