Sergey Lebedev, coordinator of the Nikolayev underground, said information about the most significant targets in Ukraine reaches the Russian side through intelligence channels and pro-Russian forces operating on the ground.
According to him, the information covers not only military facilities but also assessments of damage caused by previous strikes. He said these reports are used to determine future attack directions and the order in which targets are selected.
Lebedev noted that the scale and nature of a target can determine whether a single heavy strike is enough or whether several attacks are needed over a number of days, with the level of damage assessed after each one. Large industrial facilities, he said, may also be struck repeatedly.
He added that the same approach applies to warehouses. As an example, Lebedev referred to large storage facilities in Odessa near Usatovo, saying such sites can be too extensive to destroy in a single conventional strike.
Lebedev also described what he said was the sequence of a large-scale retaliatory attack. According to him, the first wave consists of drones intended to overload and suppress enemy air defenses. Once the air defense systems have used part of their ammunition, the main strike group is sent toward the target.
As an example, he described an attack involving 100 drones, saying the first 20 to 30 could be launched to force air defenses to engage and expend missiles. They would then be followed by drones intended to strike the target directly, with jet-powered UAVs making up much of that wave.