Ukrainian drones recently struck the Novozybkov Pump Station. This facility is part of the strategic Druzhba pipeline and it is located 30 km (20 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
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This incident highlights another major strategic problem Russia is facing. The Druzhba pipeline has around 20 pump stations and hubs ranging from Syzran at the Volga river and all the way to Belarus.
perfect idea! hit the Druzhba pipeline a lot in Russia. Then you can simply tell Slovakia and Hungary that you are more than willing to open the Druzhba II/Friendship pipeline in Ukraine again but alas...Russia isn't providing oil to it!
Gas compressor stations seem like juicy targets too. The turbines are built in the West, and Russia can't maintain them on its own... let alone replace them.
The problem for Russia is the same. They have a chain of fragile infrastructure spread across a wide area, and they can't protect all of it.
This makes no less than 7 Russian regions which need to be protected. It is not secret that Russia's air defense assets are absolutely not capable to cover this entire large area.
Putin could attack Ukraine's gas infrastructure, especially if Ukraine starts piping Azerbaijan's gas to Europe, that would give Putin incentive. I doubt he would enjoy being undercut and have his LNG investment wasted. It's funny because he wants the pipelines intact so he can resume using them.
1/3 A math note: when a country grows in area, it's resources grow in proportion to this area, but borders grow as square root (MUCH less). Huge Russia required relatively small force for border defense, small relative to the assets it has on it's territory. USED to be enough, to guard the BORDER.
2/3 But if the WHOLE territory is to be defended, it is a different game. Defensive forces budgeted to protect a linear border are woefully insufficient to spread and protect the gigantic inner AREA of the Empire.
Now Russians have to defend AREA, not the border as they planned their forces to.
3/3 Someone screwed up in the Russian military science establishement. Today to operate in the operational or even strategic rear of the enemy, no breach of the front line is necessary as a precondition. Folks who INTRODUCED the "deep battle" concept should had predicted and planned for this.
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MAKE RUSSIA BURN!
SLAVA UCRAINA FROM SWEDEN
The problem for Russia is the same. They have a chain of fragile infrastructure spread across a wide area, and they can't protect all of it.
bye bye russian economy.
Now Russians have to defend AREA, not the border as they planned their forces to.