Ukraine to rain hell on Russia for 40 DAYS as Storm Shadows blitz electronics factory

Now, this has been translated somewhat as an influence operation, but fundamentally it is trying, he says, to change Moscow's point of view to make them serious about peace.

And it comes just hours after Russian cable-laying ships and air defense batteries in Crimea were struck by that SBU Intelligence Service, and they are claiming those operations are part of this influence operation.

And that...

Those strikes indeed came just after a railway line to the top of Crimea was hit after a ferry over Kerch was hit, and indeed a few days after a factory, a semiconductor plant in Voronezh was struck, we understand, with SCALP or Storm Shadow bunker-busting cruise missiles.

Those are some of the most powerful, exquisite weapons in Ukraine's arsenal donated by the United Kingdom and France.

And I mention that operation specifically against the plant in Voronezh because in a talk this week in London, the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Europe highlighted it as significant because he was talking about the, how important the industrial base of any nation is to its military might.

And we've talked a lot on Frontline about the effort Ukraine goes to degrading Russia's oil infrastructure to try and hammer the Kremlin's coffers so that Moscow can't fund its war effort, but equally important, if, if not potentially more important, is degrading the industrial base so that Russia cannot make the machines and the weapons that its soldiers need to fight.

Now, back to this 40-day operation.

I wanted to have a look at perhaps the significance of 40 days, whether that number is important.

President Zelensky announced it on the 25th of June, so 40 days later would bring us to the 4th of August.

I just had a quick look to see whether that's a significant date in Russian or Ukrainian history.

The only date I could come up with immediately was that was the day that former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev left to go on holiday in 1991, where he went to his dacha in Crimea, which was the beginning of the coup and attempted coup by a gang of eight, which didn't succeed, but ultimately did lead to Gorbachev leaving power.

Uh, and that in turn led to the collapse, or, or, or was coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Also, on the 2nd of August, important for Russia, it's Airborne Forces Day, uh, where the VDV, Russian paratroopers, are celebrated.

It's the anniversary of their founding, and last year President Putin paid homage to them as the legendary winged infantry.

These dates might be significant.

I think more importantly, it's gonna take us through a number of events, including an upcoming NATO summit in Ankara and indeed the 4th of July, where America will not only celebrate its Independence Day, but the 250th anniversary of its independence.

I think most likely what President Zelensky is doing by announcing this 40-day push is effectively he is setting...

He's setting the narrative for what could be a Ukrainian escalation, hitting new, bigger, more important targets, or simply a greater volume of targets.

But he's setting the context that any strike like that is fundamentally designed to bring Russia to the negotiating table, to influence the aggressor, to change the mind of President Putin and those closest to him, to make them realize that they must sue for peace.

Because for all the rhetoric we've seen over the four plus years of this conflict, Russian claims to want to end the war have consistently proven hollow.