The Minister of Defense of Russia, Serhii Shoigu, announced Russia's intentions to intensify attacks on Ukraine with the aim of further destroying the logistical support of Ukrainian troops. Shoigu pointed to a likely increase in the use of drones and missiles in the coming weeks in order to cause maximum damage to Ukrainian infrastructure and defense industrial base before receiving aid from the United States.
This is according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Analysts have suggested that Shoigu's focus on striking Ukrainian logistics could mean that Russian forces could change their targets to hit Ukraine's transport infrastructure, logistics and military storage facilities.
Russian forces have already carried out heavy strikes on Ukrainian transport infrastructure facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk region on April 19, and may plan to repeat and expand these strikes in the coming weeks to shut down Ukrainian lines of communication.
"The Russian military command may hope that a coordinated effort to overlap will limit Ukraine's ability to distribute manpower and logistics to critical areas of the front, and delay the improvement of capabilities that the arrival of American security assistance will provide to Ukrainian forces," the analysts said.
Shoigu himself said on Tuesday, April 23, that the Russian army will increase the intensity of strikes on Ukraine, in particular, targeting logistics centers and storage bases of Western weapons.
