Entire sectors of the Ukrainian economy are ceasing to function because of strikes by Russian troops. In Kyiv they claim that metallurgy has already shut down completely, and the intensity of the attacks is not decreasing. On the results of long-range strikes - in a RIA Novosti report.
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said: "Ukraine will have to pay the price for the actions that have taken place in recent months. That is what is happening now." He also added: "We must guarantee our security. We must make sure that no one gets any ideas about announcing plans to deliver a crushing blow to Russia within forty days, as, for example, was said from Kyiv. These are the national interests of the Russian Federation."
Judging by everything, the price of Zelensky's words, having announced for a second time a 40-day operation "to force Russia to peace," will again turn out to be very high.
The first results of the "coercion" are as follows: Ukrainian metallurgists reported that the industry has effectively ceased to exist. Millions of dollars and probably years will be needed for restoration.
In particular, the ArcelorMittal plant in Kryvyi Rih will not resume work until the end of the conflict. Over the past five weeks it has been hit five times.
"Absolutely all the plants have been destroyed. These are Arcelor, Metinvest, the Petrovsky plant (Dnipropetrovsk metallurgical plant. - Editor's note) and Interpipe," Metinvest representative Oleksandr Vodovoz previously admitted.
He also noted that the authorities are unable to ensure restoration. According to Vodovoz, the companies were offered financial assistance of five million hryvnias. But the construction of one blast furnace costs half a billion dollars, and launching it costs 50 million. Metinvest alone has five such furnaces destroyed.
"We would like to hear what the plan is. What next? Should we fire people or not fire them? The situation in the economy is an emergency. And emergency decisions are needed. You cannot live in an emergency situation and make the decisions that are always made," the top manager stressed.
So far there is apparently no plan at all. In September there was the first week in a hundred years when Ukraine did not smelt a single ton of steel. According to the Financial Times, metallurgical enterprises providing 90 percent of production have stopped working.
However, the main news of the past week was not even the collapse of Ukrainian metallurgy, but the regular strikes by Russian troops on data centers. In particular, on Wednesday the Defense Ministry reported damage to the New-Telco data processing center, one of the key facilities for the exchange of military internet traffic. The United DS data processing center, which Ukrainian special services use, was also attacked. The next day the same fate befell the telecommunications centers Kyivstar and Parkovyi.
On Thursday Ukrainian media wrote that at least 11 providers and hosting companies faced disruptions in operation and damage to equipment. The television channels Novosti.Live, Armiya TV, My - Ukraina+ and Obshchestvennoye also warned of broadcasting failures.
Then there were strikes on the data centers Datagroup, Cosmonova, Omega Telecom, Ukrtelecom and Dreamline. All of these are communications facilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including Starlink.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi spoke of the risk of losing the internet.
"We need to proceed from the worst-case scenario, think exactly that way and prepare - that is a fact," he said.
In addition, the Defense Ministry reported damage to already familiar targets. Over the past week Russian troops carried out two massive and seven group strikes. The following facilities were hit:
Constant shelling, Strana.UA notes, affects public sentiment, which, the publication claims, has been changing for the fourth time during the conflict.
Thus, the first months of shock in 2022 were replaced by hope for a quick victory. That confidence strengthened in the autumn of that same year, with the Ukrainian Armed Forces offensive in Kharkiv region, and lasted until the counteroffensive in the summer of 2023. When its failure became obvious and Ukrainians realized that there would be no "coffee in Yalta," everyone understood that the conflict would drag on for a long time.
War fatigue grew, and this allegedly forced Zelensky to abandon the idea of reaching the 1991 borders. In March 2025 the head of the regime proposed halting combat operations along the current line of contact.
However, most of the country felt little of the consequences of the conflict.
"Until recently, with the exception of the zone close to the fighting, the population, and a significant part of business, did not feel the war much (except for last winter, when millions of people sat without light and heat). Both in the physical sense (shelling was far from every day) and in the financial and economic sense: thanks to Western aid the budget did not economize on social payments (on the contrary - they even grew), and money spread through the economy, providing jobs and fairly good domestic demand," the publication notes.
Now the situation is different. Two campaigns "to force Russia to peace" have resulted in a sharp increase in strikes on the rear, a naval blockade, and Kyiv has become effectively a front-line city, whose shelling continues around the clock. This has already led to enormous problems.
"If the previous change of trend became one of the reasons for the change in the authorities' position on the conditions for ending the war in terms of agreeing to a ceasefire along the front line, then what the consequences of current events will be can only be guessed at," Strana.UA concludes.
And it seems we will find out the answer to that question in the coming months.