Russian military is ramping up its targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine as it “faces setbacks on the front lines,” the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said on Sunday.
In an “intelligence update” posted on Twitter, the ministry claimed that in the last week, Moscow has “increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect.”
Russian missiles struck a reservoir dam near the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the BBC reported on Thursday, which caused the flooding of some houses and prompted officials to evacuate some areas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the dam had “no military value at all.”
Russia has also increased its targeting of Ukrainian power plants in recent days.
The U.K.’s Ministry of Defence said Sunday that as Russia “faces setbacks on the front lines,” it “likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.” It also mentioned Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid as well as its attack on a “dam on the Inhulets River Kryvyi Rih.”
Russia has suffered losses in the battlefield in recent weeks, as Ukraine launched a counteroffensive to take back territory Russian troops had occupied in the northern Kharkiv region and southern Kherson region. On Monday, Zelensky said that troops had recaptured about 2,320 square miles of territory since their counteroffensive began at the beginning of September
