In marches General Winter...

Russia’s missile strikes in Ukraine were directed at natural gas infrastructure today.

They are trying to take away access to electricity and heat from 40 million Ukrainians.

It will be -6C in Kyiv on Saturday night.

Russia wants Ukrainian civilians to freeze to death. pic.twitter.com/Qdl0tlwstK

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 17, 2022

I don't know why ANYONE is surprised by the attacks on the energy infrastructure. I've said before and I'll say again. ATTACKING command/control centers, communications and energy infrastructure is a well established American playbook. The only surprise here is that it took the Russians this long.

But on second thought waiting till the start of winter was perhaps the proper strategic move. 

The pressure is on the Kyiv govt and the focus will shift from supplying weaponry to supplying energy which will further strain the European and American allies because their citizens will be dealing with increased prices that will increase even more with a significant supply having to be routed to keep Ukraine above water.

This war has gone thru phases.  First the Russian assault that was blunted.  Next was the Ukrainian UAV war.  Russia got its air defenses in order and dulled that blade.  The naval war for Russia has always been a muddled mess with the sinking of their flagship being the first insult and the follow-on battles for the island and final the seaborne drone attack nailing the coffin on that phase.

We went thru the phase of loitering drones with both sides continuing to use them but in a more limited fashion now.  Then we had the MLRS fight....and finally we're onto the cruise missile barrage by Russia on the Ukrainian infrastructure.

What should we look for next?

I'm thinking we should see how the allies make up for reduced energy in Ukraine.  We should look to see how the Ukrainians cope with the Russian cruise missile barrage.

Finally the next big thing I predict will be when the Russians start using those Iranian ballistic missiles.  I truly believe that will be the next shock to the system and I'm just wondering what Ukrainian unit will be micro fragmented and how the allies will respond.