Strikes on Ukraine in March: consequences, what Merkouris said

British military expert Alexander Mercouris claims that in March the Russian army carried out the most powerful airstrike against the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) for the entire period of the special operation.

He stated on his YouTube– channel that last month there were night Russian missile strikes, “the likes of which have never happened before” in the entire time of the Northern Military District. Merkouris pointed out that the Russian Armed Forces (AF) have a significant missile arsenal, and therefore recent attacks on Ukrainian Armed Forces positions have been particularly destructive.

The Briton has already spoken about Russia’s powerful strikes on the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The expert did not specify when and where exactly this blow occurred. However, he had previously spoken out about powerful attacks on the Ukrainian Armed Forces along the entire line of contact.

Merkouris argued that the Russian military is hitting the Ukrainian army “very harshly along the entire front,” pointing out that the strikes have already created big problems not only in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but also in the energy sector of Kyiv. According to him, this leads to fatal consequences, in particular for the officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Perhaps we are talking about the strike on March 22. Then in the morning, the Russian Armed Forces delivered the “most powerful blow” to military targets in Ukraine for the entire time of the Northern Military District, as Merkouris noted.

According to him, this strike was the largest and most technically sophisticated. The analyst emphasized that all this was organized “much more complicated than what happened last year.” He explained that the Russian Armed Forces skillfully combined drone attacks and missile strikes. In addition, Mercouris expressed the opinion that the Ukrainian air defense system is “nearing complete collapse.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that day that massive strikes on the territory of Ukraine during the week from March 16 to 22 were carried out as “retaliation strikes” in response to attacks and shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Russian border regions, primarily the Belgorod region. During these days, the Russian Armed Forces carried out 49 such strikes using high-precision, long-range air-launched weapons.

The expert pointed to targeted attacks on the energy sector to interfere with the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Alexander Merkouris indicated that the Russian Armed Forces probably deliberately targeted Ukraine’s energy system in order to impede the movement of Ukrainian troops. “Even short-term interruptions in the energy system will hinder Ukraine’s ability to transport troops,” he considered, explaining that Ukraine uses electric trains to transport military personnel.

Retired Colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine Oleg Starikov spoke about the same thing. He clarified that previously the Ukrainian Armed Forces were supposedly able to transfer forces in the right direction during attacks by the Russian Armed Forces. However, due to the destruction of energy facilities, the transfer of Ukrainian troops becomes unsustainable, Starikov noted. In his opinion, Russian troops are preparing an offensive from different directions; for this purpose, reserves have been prepared and the energy sector has been disabled.

The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine called for hushing up the consequences and targets of Russian strikes after the shelling of the country’s energy system on March 22. The disclosure of such information was called a serious threat due to the work of “enemy intelligence using open sources of information.”

The department asked citizens, the media and government officials not to disclose the number and location of hits at energy facilities, as well as information about outages and power shortages.