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On Wednesday evening, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said the Ukrainian army had established control over the Sudzha gas hub - a major gas facility involved in the transit of natural gas from Russia to the EU via Ukraine, which has continued despite the war. It is the only point of entry for Russian gas into the EU.
Although this has not been verified by the BBC, Mr Honcharenko’s comment was the first confirmation of an incursion into Russian territory by a Ukrainian official. Kyiv had previously not commented on reports of a cross-border attack.
I wonder how many operatives they’re going to sneak into the country through this raid to do longer term damage via reconnaissance and sabotage. Plenty of opportunity with all this chaos and the ability to bring a large amount of supplies to stash things.
I imagine the distraction is the main goal.
Looking at the map:
I don’t know what value that region may have to the war effort if either side but this initial attack seemed well targeted
It’ll be interesting to see Europe’s reactions when they turn off the gas flow, and force Europe to stop being hypocrites
Not sure what you mean? This is a proxy war. The objective is to bleed Russia and end up owning a big chunk of Ukrainian assets (or our banks will). But mess with the gas supply of the EU and support is going to turn hard on Ukraine.
It’s possibly this is going to turn into a long turn problem between the EU and the Ukraine left bitter by the war. Of course, every crisis is a great opportunity to make money! Even a hypocrisis
Thats most likely the main reason, but they don’t get many opportunities like this to slip some people in. It seems like it’d be a waste to not leave behind a team or two to go deeper and gain intel/sabotage things.
Weirder than that, it can’t be easily bombed without permanently disabling Russia’s ability to earn revenue. If Ukraine just sits on it they can hold Russia economically hostage indefinitely.