Earlier this month, four drones attacked a Russian oil refinery about 400 km away. of Ukraine. The next day, the facility was attacked by another drone, shortly after another drone bombed a fuel depot on the other side of Russia, near Belarus.

Let’s call it an attack before an attack. One accurate attack after another. Ukraine is using ammunition caches and other caches — caches that Moscow’s forces must contend with — in an effort to weaken them ahead of a larger ground campaign aimed at pushing back the Russian invaders, the Wall.Street Journal reported, citing Rador.

Ukrainian leaders say they expect significant Western arms to arrive ahead of what was thought to be a spring offensive that could now stretch into the summer, backed by some newly trained units armed with all-Western tanks, armored vehicles and artillery.

To prepare the ground, Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on positions in the heart of territories conquered by the Russians, in operations that analysts say will redefine the position – all moves aimed at undermining the enemy and giving them some slack to exploit.

Ukraine also carried out such attacks last year, using US-supplied Himars missile systems, before the country retook territory in the Kharkiv region and the city of Kherson. However, it is now going further, using drones as well as UK-supplied Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles.

For Ukraine, which is dealing with a larger army, the attacks are important to depleting Russia’s combat resources.

Any battle lasting more than a few days will be a logistical contest, commanders say, so destroying ammunition, fuel and spare parts depots may become more important than destroying tanks or other artillery because the impact can be greater. A tank without fuel or ammunition would be of little use.

“This is a preparatory stage,” says Oleksandr Kovalenko, an analyst at the Ukrainian Center for Security Studies. “It’s about destabilizing and weakening the enemy’s capabilities before an offensive.”

Moscow has condemned Kyiv for a recent wave of attacks on fuel depots and distribution networks on Russian territory and in occupied regions of Ukraine. Ukraine has not taken responsibility for such attacks.

In one of the latest attacks, a drone blew up a fuel depot in Bryansk, a region of Russia on the border between Belarus and Ukraine, causing significant damage.

A few days earlier, Russian state media reported a fire at an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region after two days of drone attacks on the depot, located almost 400 km away. the nearest territory controlled by Ukraine.

Russia also says Ukraine launched Storm Shadow missile strikes on Luhansk, a region in the east of the country, last week. Ukraine has not commented on any missile attack in any way.

People’s deputy of Ukraine on defense Oleksandra Ustinova says that the attack on Russian warehouses was extremely important for the success at the front last year. “After we received the first Khymars launchers, we destroyed their logic – that’s how we were able to repel Kherson,” she said. indicating at the same time that later Russia had to withdraw its troops by more than 40 km. back so that they do not fall into the field of view of missile launchers.

The massive use of drones and commando formations operating in some very dangerous areas has allowed Ukraine to target additional Russian weapons. Currently, the addition of European long-range cruise missiles should allow Ukraine to attack at even greater distances with even greater consequences.

Earlier this month, Britain announced it would provide Ukraine with an as-yet unspecified number of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which are launched from aircraft and have a range of up to 200km and contain a comparatively higher amount of explosives. rockets

“It will have a Himars-like effect on Russian logistics, but at a distance of 100 to 200 km. from the front line,” emphasized Trent Telenko, a former employee of the Pentagon’s Contract Management Office who studied the logistics of the Russian military.

Ukrainian journalists spotted more than 220 Russian military targets located at a distance greater than the reach of Kyiv’s Khimars, but within the range of cruise missiles, Telenko also reported. Their warehouses cover all military needs, but especially artillery ammunition.

“All this is now under threat,” he said.

If Moscow can be persuaded to withdraw its reserves to a distance of more than 200 km. from the front, the remaining forces in that lane would be in what Telenko described as a “logistical desert,” forced to rely on long and vulnerable supply lines.

The new missiles are also equipped with advanced guidance and tracking systems that allow them to fly low and skirt Russian air defenses, increasing their chances of hitting targets, the Wall Street Journal (Rador) reports.