KEY POINTS
- A retired Air Force colonel suggested Putin may move Russian forces to areas in Donbas
- The colonel said Putin is unlikely to sustain the war in Ukraine in the long term
- Russia previously admitted it was targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure to force Kyiv to the negotiating table
Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely redouble his attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure even amid reports that Moscow is suffering from a severe supply shortage, according to a report.
Speaking with CNN, Retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton suggested that Putin hopes Russia’s attacks on critical civilian infrastructure will cause a stalemate.
“I think what he’s going to do is he’s going to double down on the kind of things he’s doing right now. You will see more attacks on the civilian infrastructure, unfortunately. You will also see a chance, perhaps, to move Russian forces a bit forward to areas of the Donbas in the eastern part of the country that the Russians have either lost control of or have not gained complete control of up until this point,” Leighton said.
Leighton, however, added that he does not believe Putin can sustain the war long-term, citing “severe shortages” in the Russian army’s supply chain as one of the reasons.
“What we’re seeing is some severe shortages in his supply chain. We’re seeing some real difficulties getting his Russian forces ready. The fact that he had to conscript 300,000 new people into the Russian military on an emergency basis shows that there’s a great deal of weakness in the existing Russian military,” he added.
It is unclear how many missiles Russia still has in its reserves. An infographic report published by the Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov in November showed that the Russian army’s arsenal only had limited stocks of Iskander SAM system, Kalibr cruise missiles, X-101 and X-555 cruise missiles, X022 and X-32 cruise missiles and X-35 anti-ship missiles.
As per the infographic, Moscow only had a few high-precision missile arsenal with plenty of stocks left, including the 3M55 Onyx anti-ship missiles and the hypersonic KH-47M2 “Kinzhal” missiles.
Russia previously admitted it was bombing critical infrastructure, including energy facilities, to force Ukraine to enter a negotiation with Russia. On New Year’s Eve, several Ukrainian regions were hit by a new round of Russian missile strikes, leaving at least one person dead and at least 20 wounded.
