Defense Express reported this assessment after the Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on the night of October 10, 2025, which caused power outages in several regions and immediately sparked widespread calls for a mirror strike. Defense Express says those calls are understandable, but cautions that decisions of this magnitude require sober analysis.The partial blackout in Ukraine was not the result of a single exceptional strike but the cumulative effect of methodical, concentrated attacks carried out in multiple campaigns since October 2022. As Defense Express explains, repeated hits have damaged entire power plants — both thermal (for example, Trypilska) and hydro (for example, DniproHES) — and have taken out major grid nodes and transformer hubs. “It is the result of methodical, concentrated enemy attacks during several separate campaigns,” the report notes.Put bluntly: war is a contest of resources. The side with more long-range munitions — or the side that uses fewer munitions far more efficiently — gains the persistent advantage. Russia’s larger stockpile of cruise and ballistic missiles and its huge fleet of long-range drones have allowed it to strike energy infrastructure, gas production sites, defense enterprises, and even residential areas in a sustained way.Ukraine, for its part, has focused pragmatically on striking oil and gas infrastructure where attacks can have clear economic and operational effects. Small drones carrying 50-kg warheads can disable refineries; strikes since June 2022 (beginning, notably, with the Novoshakhtinsk refinery hit) have contributed to lost Kremlin oil revenues, reduced output, and shortages in fuel supply. Defense Express says these operations have “already led to the Kremlin losing oil revenues” and to tangible damage to Russian refining capacity.But destroying an entire country’s refining or power network is not a single-day task. Repairs, redundancy, and the scale of facilities mean that any campaign must be methodical and sustained. That raises a hard tradeoff: do you reallocate limited long-range strike assets away from targets where they’re already inflicting pain, or do you open a new front against energy infrastructure that will require time, munitions, and planning to yield strategic results?The choice becomes easier if Ukraine acquires additional long-range strike capabilities — for example, large numbers of indigenous cruise missiles or systems like the Tomahawk — but even then the decision isn’t purely technical. Political, legal, and escalation risks must be weighed. Defense Express explains that target selection, force allocation, and timing must all be evaluated strategically rather than driven by the immediate desire for retribution.That is why decisions on mirror strikes should be made with a cool head. Emotional responses are understandable — “revenge is a dish best served cold” — but effective strategy requires patience, clear objectives, and a realistic appraisal of resources and consequences. Defense Express says that, above all, Ukraine must decide what outcome it wants to achieve with its long-range strikes, then align resources to that objective rather than let anger dictate strategy.