[1]
By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with [2]
When President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on the weekend (lead image, left) that for war operations, he refers to his “colleagues”, he meant, among several things, that he has removed his restrictions on the General Staff’s conduct of the electric war on the Ukrainian battlefield as far west as the Polish border.
The record of Russia’s electric war strikes in the Ukraine began on October 10-12 and 16-20, 2022; then followed on October 22-27, 2023; March 29-30, 2024; June 1, 2024; and November 7, 2024. Click to follow each stage of the electric war [3]. Roughly speaking, Putin agreed with the General Staff that they could target power generating plants and the power grids transmitting electricity to the main population centres.
Triggering population evacuation from east to west, then into Poland, was one of the political goals Putin agreed. Cutting the train lines between Poland, Lvov and Kiev was not. This allowed almost unrestricted inflow of US and NATO weapons and men to supply the eastern front, including the Ukrainian attack and occupation of Kursk region which began on August 6, 2024; also, the movement of western political and media figures to and from Kiev for escalation of the propaganda war against Russia. The open rail lines have been used to demonstrate the US- NATO line that Ukraine is winning, Russia losing the war.
Putin then accepted President Donald Trump’s proposal for a 30-day halt to attacks on the Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure; that began after their telephone call on February 12.
Trump’s war staffs in Washington, Poland, and the Ukraine did not honour the Putin-Trump telephone agreement; it was a unilateral, unreciprocated Putin concession Instead, they have steadily escalated their drone and missile attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, including oil pumping sites, oil storages, gas pipelines and processing plants, port terminals, and oil refineries.
The tone of the war decision-making process in Moscow has sharpened as the enemy attacks have escalated, their targets deeper in the Russian hinterland.
A Moscow source in a position to know says that Putin has rejected the criticism that concessions to Trump for the sake of negotiating a peace settlement were producing no reciprocation from the Americans; instead encouraging them to escalate to test Russian vulnerability,pressure the domestic economy, and probe for Putin’s weakness.
Trump (also Vice President JD Vance) have attempted all three.
He intended to combine them when he announced on September 23 that Russia is a “paper tiger [4]”. Then in front of his assembly of military commanders on September 30 Trump made the attack personal [5]. “He [Putin] should have had that war done in a week. And I said to him, you know, you don’t look good. You’re four years fighting a war that should have taken a week. Are you a paper tiger?”
Trump has also dismissed negotiating to achieve end of war. “Problem with Vietnam,” Trump told the crew of the USS Harry Truman on October 5 [6], “we, you know, we stopped fighting to win. We would’ve won easy. We would’ve won Afghanistan easy, would’ve won every war easy. But we got politically correct, ‘Ah, let’s take it easy.’ It’s, we’re not politically correct anymore, just so you understand. We win — Now, we win. We don’t want to be politically correct anymore.”
Trump also keeps repeating [7] his personal attack on Putin — “I’m very disappointed in him.”
In answer, Putin’s approach, the President has said privately, should be: “we won’t rock the boat. We won’t be provoked.” The General Staff, the intelligence services and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have responded: “the other side will rock the boat even harder.” The source requests that the discussion of their options which has followed should remain out of public debate.
Moscow sources acknowledge the sting in the paper tiger jibe. “The Europeans and Brits have studied Putin’s weaknesses and think they know how to defeat him. They think – and the Russian oligarchs have been telling them – there is no Kremlin secret they don’t know.”
The source dismisses pro-Russian podcasters in the US. “They think they are following the Kremlin line from RT and Sputnik which reward them by putting them on Russian TV and quoting them.” “It’s a circle jerk”, says a military source familiar with US slang.
Putin’s performance [8] at the Valdai Club conference last Thursday has triggered sharp internal reaction; some of it has spilled out publicly. Putin tried to explain himself in a brief interview with Pavel Zarubin on the weekend. “I was simply honestly and frankly laying out certain situations, the essence of the issues, and how I feel about them,” the President said. This has been interpreted in Moscow as apologetic.
“Well,” Putin went on, “it’s up to my colleagues to respond. I spoke sincerely and honestly as it is; how things actually were; and how I would like to see the situation develop. Some will like this; some won’t. And I didn’t have a goal. I didn’t set out to do anything pleasing. I just tell it like it is. [9]”
Moscow sources point out that Putin has now followed up in two unexpected sessions with his colleagues. The Security Council was called into session on Tuesday, earlier in the week than usual [10]. That meeting was followed on Wednesday with a meeting between Putin and the Defense Ministry, General Staff and military commanders from the front army groups (lead image, right). “In an attempt to show its Western sponsors at least some semblance of success,” Putin began, “the Kiev regime is trying to target civilian facilities deep inside our territory. This will not help it. Our goal is to ensure the safety of the Russian citizens, as well as the safety of the strategic sites and civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities [11].”
Putin’s intention was to stiffen Russian deterrence by threat of retaliation if Trump escalates by supplying the Tomahawk missile to Germany, the UK, Canada or other NATO states for redeployment in the Ukraine; or by authorizing the Germans to fire the Taurus missile at Russian hinterland targets. The operational strategy agreed, a source claims, is Russian readiness to fight one battlefield at a time to match Trump’s sequencing of wars on Russia’s western, eastern, and southern fronts. It is also to accelerate the fight to the finish on the Ukrainian battlefield.
“Within six months, by the end of the winter, to consolidate control of the four regions,” one source claims.
“In a year, maybe less, maybe longer,” another source believes. “The operational strategy is to keep the line hot; keep the Ukrainians, and of course the Americans, in doubt about which direction we will concentrate our ground movements. This is operational dominance, manoeuvre control, control of the surprise factor.”
“Comrades,” Putin assured [11] the military meeting, “our shared objective remains unchanged – we must ensure the unconditional fulfilment of all goals set for the troops in the course of the special military operation.”
Listen to the discussion with Nima Alkhorshid today [12].
[13]Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPjsS46gYcc [12]
At the same time as Putin was meeting with the military leaders, he authorized [14] spokesman Dmitry Peskov to issue a warning to Trump not to escalate with the Tomahawk. This was intended as his reply to Trump’s claim the day before in the Oval Office that he had “sort of made a [Tomahawk supply] decision, pretty much.” Trump added that he will have the final say on targets in Russia. “I think I want to find out what they’re doing with them. You know, where are they sending them. I guess I’d have to ask that question…No, no, I want to — I would — I would ask some questions. I want to see what’s — I would ask some questions. I am not looking to see an escalation [14].”
Putin’s spokesman [15] challenged that. “This will imply a serious spiral of escalation, which, however, will not be able to change the battlefield situation for the Kiev regime. But it is important to bear in mind in this context, putting aside various nuances, that these missiles can be equipped with nuclear warheads…This is a serious spiral of escalation, indeed. We understand that we need to wait for, perhaps, clearer statements, if they follow. As for arms supplies, they are usually sent and then statements follow. At least, that’s the way it was under the Biden administration. Let’s wait and see how things go this time around.”
Vzglyad, the Moscow security analysis platform, has just published a report on the new operational targeting and strategic purpose of the General Staff’s electric war. In the text which follows, the translation is verbatim without editing. Links to English-language sources have been added, plus illustrations, for reader understanding.
[16]Source: https://vz.ru/society/2025/10/7/1364882.html [17]
[18]October 7, 2025
How Russia is depriving Ukrainian units of supplies
By Nikita Mironov
“Ours act like this. First, an Iskander [19] missile strike, and then they finish off with Geran drones [20].” In these words, military experts describe the technology of Russia’s defeat of the military echelons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian railway infrastructure. Why have the Russian Armed Forces recently increased the intensity of attacks on enemy trains and locomotives?
Russian troops are intensifying attacks on Ukraine’s military and logistical infrastructure. In particular, on October 5 the Russian Defense Ministry reported that “tactical aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery defeated rolling stock used for rail transportation of weapons and military equipment to combat areas in Donbass.”
The enemy claimed that on this day Russia broke its own record — 700 drones and 52 missiles were fired for the strikes. Ukraine’s military-industrial, logistics and energy facilities suffered the most. But the main difference between these strikes and the previous ones was in the choice of targets – in particular, the railway infrastructure of the Poltava and Sumy regions was damaged.
“In Poltava, locomotive depots, the power supply grid, and traction substations were affected. Administrative and storage facilities and rolling stock were damaged. Fires broke out,” said Alexei Kuleba, Minister of Community and Territorial Development, on October 7. According to him, the Kharkov-Lvov, Lvov-Kharkov, and Kramatorsk-Lvov trains have been delayed following serious damage to the logistics infrastructure. But what the Ukrainian official was obviously silent about was that not only passenger trains were delayed, but also military trains with equipment and ammunition intended to supply the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
Attempts to destroy the logistics of the AFU have been made before. Since the autumn of 2022, Russia has been actively attacking Ukraine’s energy facilities, including electrical substations powering the railway. The idea was the superficial one: most of the Ukrainian railways run on electricity. If there is no electricity, electric locomotives do not work. And Ukraine doesn’t have enough diesel locomotives. However, the Kiev regime has found a way out.
“Electrical substations were quickly restored, or even changed with the help of equipment supplies from Europe. And caponiers [21] were built over them – powerful concrete fortifications that protect against drones and some missiles,” Vladimir Prokhvatilov, a military expert and senior researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences, tells Vzglyad. Yury Knutov, a historian of the air defence forces, adds that the Ukrainians were helped out by partners from Eastern Europe who began to supply old diesel–powered locomotives.
Then Russia changed tactics and began to hunt directly for locomotives. For example, Ukrainian Telegram channels claimed that back in the summer, the Russian Armed Forces began to massively attack railway logistics, especially in Dobropillya, a large logistics hub of the AFU, which serves the Pokrovsk-Mirnograd agglomeration.
[22]“Knowing where they are, it is possible to destroy locomotives, even with conventional drones, since most railway facilities are poorly protected by air defence forces”, Prokhvatilov explained. According to the expert, most weapons and ammunition arrive in Ukraine by rail. And only then it is loaded into small trucks and even minivans for delivery to the front. This tactic – to disperse supplies – was developed by the Americans. So the railway is a key link in the logistics of the AFU. If just half the number of locomotives are knocked out, the supply of AFU groups, at least in key areas, will be at risk. According to Ukrainian sources, more than two hundred locomotives have been destroyed since the beginning of the special operation.
“Ours act like this. First, an Iskander missile strike, and then they finish off with Geran drones,” Knutov explained. At the same time, according to the expert, in October, for the first time in history, the Geran-3 UAV struck a moving train. A drone disabled the lead locomotive in the Chernigov region, which forced the train to stop, after which the following drones attacked the fuel tank train. The entire cargo was burned.
Geran-3 is equipped with night-vision cameras and modern guidance systems. They are able to identify moving objects in real time. The devices keep in touch with the operator at a distance of several hundred kilometres.
[23]The Geran-3 mounted for display at the May 9, 2025, Red Square parade. Source: https://armyrecognition.com/focus-analysis-conflicts/army/conflicts-in-the-world/russia-ukraine-war-2022/exclusive-russia-ramps-up-geran-drone-production-plans-to-scale-to-500-enabling-daily-strikes-on-ukraine [24]
“This drone has a jet engine. It flies at speeds from 400 to 600 km/h at an altitude of up to 5 km, plus it can maneuver during flight,” Knutov explained. Geran-3 reads radiation emanating from missile guidance stations and effectively bypasses them. For conventional military air defense systems, the Geran-3 is a very difficult target.
Military expert Vladislav Shurygin considers the destruction of locomotives to be an extremely important task. “It is extremely difficult to quickly fill the shortage of diesel locomotives. Therefore, we need to create separate groups of UAV hunters for locomotives,” the expert believes.
Why did the mass strikes start right now? Military expert, political scientist, candidate of historical sciences Ivan Konovalov believes that Russia has begun to use tactics of “total suppression” of the enemy. At the same time, it is trying to disrupt the supply of the AFU to the front areas, where we are now actively advancing. “First of all, these are Kupyansk, Pokrovsk and Seversk, where heavy street fighting is taking place. It is important for us to stop the access of weapons and ammunition there,” the expert believes.
[25]Left to right: Yury Knutov; Vladislav Shurygin, Ivan Konovalov.
At the same time, according to experts, it is not worth completely cutting off Pokrovsk, Kupyansk and Seversk, destroying, say, bridges. The enemy must have a chance to withdraw. After all, it is during the retreat — as it was, for example, in Avdeyevka — that he suffers the most serious losses. Prokhvatilov, meanwhile, believes that there are two more reasons for the start of large-scale attacks on railway logistics: purely military and political.
“Our military-industrial complex has increased production of drones and missiles. We’ve just now accumulated enough of them for swarm strikes. And besides, Russia is literally forcing Zelensky to change his position in the coming weeks to “fight to the last Ukrainian,” the expert explained.
Prokhvatilov believes that by the time of the October summit of the APEC Forum in South Korea [October 27-November 1], where world leaders and their representatives will meet, the Russian Armed Forces are stepping up their strikes. Russia should have weighty arguments to put pressure on Trump – to show that the Ukrainian defence is crumbling and the conflict needs to be ended on Russian terms. Trump, in turn, must withdraw from the anti–Russian coalition, to which he recently returned, so as not to be in the camp of the defeated.
“He has a budget crisis, his rating is falling, and there is not a single major victory at the foreign policy level. And the midterm congressional elections are a year away. Trump urgently needs success so that the Republicans retain their majority in Congress,” Prokhvatilov explained. With this success, he can declare an end to the Ukrainian conflict.
[26]Thus, by destroying the remnants of the military-industrial complex, energy and logistics of Ukraine, Russia is turning its military advantage into a political one.