Russia’s Defense Ministry says it is preparing large-scale strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel that, “in accordance with instructions received,” it has begun preparing massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities.

The ministry called the preparations a response to “the Kyiv regime’s continuing attacks on Russia’s civilian infrastructure and its fuel and energy sector.”

Since the start of August, Ukrainian politicians and military officials have been warning that the coming winter will be difficult, in part because of a shortage of air defense systems to repel Russian attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reviewing Ukrainian diplomats’ work on energy support and deliveries of air defense missiles, said that “this year, winter is an obvious priority for everyone.”

Bloomberg said Russia is preparing to escalate its strikes on Ukraine because it considers peace talks deadlocked. According to the news agency, Moscow is weighing stepped-up strikes with conventional ballistic missiles on Kyiv — including on the center of the Ukrainian capital — as well as on infrastructure in other Ukrainian cities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is delivering a “tough response” to Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s economic and trade infrastructure, but that military escalation is “simply not necessary” for Moscow: “Ukraine is trying to strike our economic infrastructure, our trade infrastructure, thereby prompting retaliatory measures on our part, and it will be a tough response. But if you’re talking about military escalation, we simply don’t need it, because we’re advancing anyway.”