Russia Plans Bigger Winter Strike as War Budget Swells for 2027
Russia is preparing a larger winter campaign against Ukraine’s power and water network while also pushing defense spending to a post-Soviet high next year, a...
Russia is preparing a larger winter campaign against Ukraine’s power and water network while also pushing defense spending to a post-Soviet high next year, according to documents and officials cited Thursday. The twin moves point to a Kremlin that is budgeting for a long war, even as it says it is open to peace talks.
The immediate risk is plain: another season of blackouts, water cuts and pressure on Ukraine’s energy grid. Russia’s draft 2027 budget sets aside 17.1 trillion rubles ($205.2 billion) for defense, and intelligence and energy officials now warn that Moscow may be readying a mass strike plan built around missiles, drones and bombs.
Budget points to a long fight
The draft budget unveiled Thursday allocates 17.1 trillion rubles ($205.2 billion) to defense next year, a 26% increase from what had previously been earmarked for that year and 375% above the pre-war level of 2021. Defense would account for roughly a third of federal spending, a post-Soviet record in nominal ruble terms.
That spending comes with a bill for Russians at home. Analysts say households, businesses and public services are likely to bear more of the cost as the government trims civilian programs and raises taxes. Economist Boris Grozovsky said Russia’s wartime economy still has a “considerable” financial cushion.
“But the message is clear: everyone will pay for the war, as much as they can. Wherever a little more money appears, the government will come for it, while handing out as little as possible itself,” he wrote in an analysis published by the exiled outlet IStories.
Energy grid under pressure
Separately, reporting cited by UNN said Russia is planning massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy and water infrastructure this winter, with the aim of causing a collapse and a humanitarian crisis. The plan, shown by Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal to European partners in Paris, was described as an intercepted Russian document focused on forcing Ukrainians “into submission through the cold.”
The document reportedly outlines attacks involving up to 1,000 missiles, drones and bombs. Targets would include electrical substations, hydroelectric and thermal power plants, and boiler houses. The greatest concern, according to the report, is that Russia wants to force Ukraine’s three operating nuclear power plants to shut down by striking with missiles.
That threat lands after fresh attacks already hit Ukraine’s capital. Before dawn on Wednesday, missiles and drones struck a large thermal power plant and other energy facilities in Kyiv, leaving several neighborhoods without power and water by morning, according to Ukrainian officials cited in the Daily Kos account. The attack was described as the opening salvo of a new campaign aimed at plunging cities into cold and darkness.
For Ukraine, the stakes are immediate. For Europe, too. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday that Russia’s main goal is to destroy Ukraine’s economy and logistics and weaken NATO’s resolve through hybrid-style drone and missile strikes, including against countries supporting Ukraine. He warned that there is a real risk drones or missiles could cross into NATO territory on the eastern flank.
“There is a real risk that drones or other types of missiles may fly into the territory of one or more NATO countries on the eastern flank, even cause destruction,” Tusk said in parliament.
Source: nytimes.com
