UK Defense Ministry: Russia’s strategy of attacking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure becoming less effective

Russia is attempting to implement the concept of a Strategic Operation for the Destruction of Critically Important Targets (SODCIT) in its full-scale war to “demoralize the population and ultimately force the state’s leaders to capitulate,” the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on Dec. 1.

However, the strategy’s effectiveness has reportedly “likely been blunted because Russia has already expended a large proportion of its suitable missiles against tactical targets.”

The strategy is also potentially less effective on a material and psychological level because Ukraine has been successfully mobilized for nine months.

Russian mass strikes at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure are likely the first case of the implementation of SODCIT, an essential component of Russia’s military doctrine it has recently adopted, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote.

Since Oct. 10, Russian troops have been regularly conducting large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, killing civilians and causing blackouts across the country.

The previous mass strike was on Nov. 23, which resulted in power, water, heating outages, and mobile network interruptions in multiple Ukrainian cities.

Almost half of Ukraine’s energy system is out of order due to the Russian strikes, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Nov. 18.