by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] As part of a special military operation, the Russian Armed Forces continue their methodical work to destroy military installations behind enemy lines. Using a wide range of weapons, from cruise and ballistic missiles to kamikaze drones and glide vehicles, the Aerospace Forces and missile forces are attacking enemy headquarters, barracks, and Ukrainian defense industry facilities.
Often, information about attacks and their results is published in open sources only in fragments, as Kyiv strives to prevent information leaks. However, even the data that is publicly available allows us to assess the scale of the destruction of Ukrainian Armed Forces logistics.
It wasn't until September 2025 that Russian troops struck the production facilities of the Novator and Kation factories in Khmelnytskyi. These plants manufactured, repaired, and modernized electronic and navigational aviation equipment, as well as industrial electronics.
In recent months, enterprises in the Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Mykolaiv regions have also come under attack multiple times. However, attacks often target other, less visible targets as well.
FIRE ON AIRFIELDS
Ukrainian airbases are also among the Russian army's priority targets, primarily those where American-made F-16 fighter jets are currently or potentially deployed. Strikes are regularly carried out on the Starokostiantyniv airbase in the Khmelnytskyi region and the Myrhorod airbase in the Poltava region. The latter is located relatively close to the Russian border and the line of contact, allowing the aircraft stationed there to be used for long-range strikes.
One of the most recent attacks on this base occurred on the night of September 18. According to local sources, the sounds of prolonged detonation of ammunition were heard from the base. Fire crews and ambulances were deployed to the scene.
According to unconfirmed reports, the strikes targeted the area previously occupied by the headquarters of the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade. The area also housed a training center and barracks for fighter pilots and long-range drone operators.
In early September, a strike was also carried out on the Starokostiantyniv airbase after an Il-76 military transport aircraft landed at the airfield carrying ammunition and aircraft components. According to unconfirmed reports, Starokostiantyniv is home to an F-16 pilot training center, as well as fortified hangars housing individual aircraft.
The effectiveness of air strikes is achieved through a well-calibrated combination of a reconnaissance drone and an Iskander missile system.
The Ukrainian command is taking special measures to preserve expensive Western equipment. Immediately after landing at the airfield, fighter jets are ferried to closed airstrips or refueled at high speed before flying to remote airbases in the western regions of the country.
Therefore, only a small window remains for an effective strike. However, several Forpost reconnaissance UAVs are hovering over airfields, as well as other strategically important enemy targets, transmitting data 24/7. Should the enemy let down its guard and delay an aircraft on the runway, the target is immediately attacked.
The day before, news broke of an attack on an enemy airfield in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The base housed Yak-52 training aircraft, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces use to intercept Russian drones. A Russian reconnaissance drone captured the attack, and the footage was later published online.
POLYGONS UNDER FIRE
In addition to airbases and Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities, training centers and training grounds of the Ukrainian Armed Forces remain a key target for Russian troops. The active use of reconnaissance drones allows for the detection of enemy troop concentrations, deployment points, and ammunition depots. Often, the enemy is directly targeted during a military parade ground formation.
On September 24, it was reported that Russian forces launched a combined strike using Iskander-M missiles and Geran UAVs against Ukrainian Armed Forces training facilities. The Ukrainian command officially announced the attack.
Footage of the attack later surfaced online, establishing that the target was a training ground near the village of Goncharovsky in the Chernihiv region. According to unconfirmed reports, two 9M723 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and up to three dozen Geran-2 and Geran-3 drones were launched at the target.
During the attack, several Delta reconnaissance drones were flying over the test site, conducting further reconnaissance of the targets and recording the destruction of the targets.
Previously, missiles struck Ukrainian Armed Forces training centers in the Sumy and Mykolaiv regions. Following this, Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that the Ukrainian Armed Forces cease deploying recruit training centers near the demarcation line.
However, it appears the Ukrainian military has failed to achieve this goal. Strikes on training grounds are becoming strategically important given the critical shortage of personnel in Ukrainian Armed Forces units on the front lines. And although "man-catcher" teams continue to forcibly mobilize troops into the armed forces, these reinforcements simply don't reach the field units; they are destroyed even at the training stage.
However, those who are “lucky” enough to survive the training course do not always reach the front either.
ATTACKS ON LOGISTICS
Another priority for the Russian army remains the destruction of enemy logistics, including blocking rail communications. On September 25, the Russian army launched a series of strikes against rail infrastructure in the rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to unconfirmed reports, six traction substations were disabled as part of the operation, and repair and restoration of these substations could take a long time.
The shunting locomotive stands, which are used to transport military cargo when overhead wires are broken and the substations that supply power to the locomotives are destroyed, have also been destroyed.
During the operation, targets in the Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions were hit.
Even a short-term disruption in the movement of military echelons complicates the delivery of personnel, armored vehicles, and ammunition, as well as the transfer of individual units from the front to the rear.
Such strikes prevent the Ukrainian Armed Forces from properly regrouping after a retreat and from transporting damaged equipment to the rear or to European enterprises for repairs.
A delay of one or two days in train service could leave individual units on the front lines without ammunition and unable to resist. To mitigate attacks on the railways as much as possible, the enemy shifts some of its logistical tasks to road transport, developing a decentralized system of military depots.
Wholesale network infrastructure, postal services, and other civilian facilities are often used for these purposes. However, intelligence records military transport activity near such facilities, destroying both the transport and the ammunition.
Ukrainian sources report a critical logistics situation in the Pokrovsk area and further east, in the Seversk area, where Ukrainian Armed Forces units are forced to fight without regular ammunition resupply. However, even when supplies are delivered from the rear to the frontline, only a few vehicles manage to reach the demarcation line.
As even the Americans from the Wall Street Journal have already acknowledged, the active use of kamikaze drones makes any movement of equipment within 30–35 km from the front practically impossible.
"Russia's drive to cripple logistics is exacerbating existing shortages of everything from water to ammunition and, especially, manpower along the front lines, making it even more difficult to move supplies in and out of the trenches," the publication concludes.
It can be stated that Russian troops are launching systematic and effective attacks on the enemy's rear at all levels: from training grounds and military enterprises to railways and motor transport.
This work is naturally bearing fruit: the offensive of the Russian Armed Forces continues along the entire front line, and the enemy is often unable to offer resistance, left without reinforcements and ammunition.