Russia intensifies pre winter strikes; Ukraine braces grid for another hard season

Headline: Russia intensifies pre-winter strikes; Ukraine braces grid for another hard season
Russian forces launched one of their largest combined drone-missile barrages of the year this week, targeting Ukraines power infrastructure and striking civilian sites including a kindergarten, according to battlefield assessments. Ukraines air force reported hundreds of Shahed drones and dozens of missiles in overnight attacks, with most intercepted but some hitting substations and repair crews in secondary double-tap strikes. The Institute for the Study of War notes the campaigns goal mirrors last winter: degrade Ukraines energy system before temperatures plunge, stressing repair capacity and morale. Kyiv has stockpiled transformers and accelerated mobile generation, while Western partners rush air defenses and grid components. Even with improved interception rates, saturated salvos can expose gaps; rolling stabilizing outages could return if hits mount faster than repairs. On the front lines, Russia probes along multiple axes to stretch Ukrainian defenses, while Ukraine focuses on counter-battery and long-range fires to push logistics nodes farther from the front. As both sides adapt, the winter contest will hinge on munitions supply, air defense density, and grid resiliencedeterminants that could shape operations well into 2026.