In the early hours of 11 February, the Russian Armed Forces carried out strikes on enemy targets in the Zaporozhye Region. One of the main targets was a key power facility in the area — the Aleksandrovskaya substation. Local residents reported that the blaze at the site could be seen from tens of kilometres away.

Military expert Captain 1st rank (retired) Vasily Dandykin said the left bank of Zaporozhye is not just a residential zone, but also a major industrial cluster, much of which has been repurposed to serve the needs of the Ukrainian army. According to him, this concentration of factories is the reason why the area is hit with missile strikes.

Dandykin stated that local authorities, as he assesses it, cut off electricity to civilian neighbourhoods and redirect power to plants producing military goods, including facilities that may be partially located underground. He stressed that without a stable energy supply, industrial equipment simply stops, and a strike on Aleksandrovskaya directly disrupts the chain of strike drone production and the repair of armoured vehicles that Kiev is trying to keep operational.

The expert added that, in his view, while some Russian missiles are targeting the enemy’s energy infrastructure, others are directed at positions that support the advance of infantry units. He claimed that on the Zaporozhye axis the front line is currently moving forward and that Ukrainian forces there are sustaining serious losses on a daily basis.

According to Dandykin, the Russian Dnepr group of forces has already come close to Zaporozhye, with Russian troops now separated from the city’s outskirts by roughly 15 kilometres.