Russia is concentrating more than 800 missiles on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which has been occupied by Moscow since 2014, and plans to use them to attack Ukraine’s energy system this winter. This was announced by the press secretary of the Ukrainian Southern Command, Natalia Gumeniuk, in a televised speech. “We are talking about more than 800 missiles in total that are ready for use by the enemy in the energy terror phase,” Gumeniuk said, citing information from Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR). Among the missiles deployed on the peninsula, the Kalibr cruise missiles and the Onyx hypersonic missiles stand out. Ukraine has no air systems capable of intercepting such missiles over most of its territory. Except for the capital Kiev, where the Ukrainians built
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Due to the best systems received from the West, Ukraine is generally vulnerable to Russian hypersonic missiles such as the Onyx or the Kinzhal. Last year, Russia carried out a massive airstrike campaign against Ukraine’s heat and electricity networks, leaving millions of Ukrainians without light or heating during the coldest time of the year. Kiev has been warning for weeks that Russia will upgrade missiles to repeat the campaign this winter, when temperatures will plunge below freezing.