kyiv has resumed its offensive against the Russian oil industry despite opposition from the United States. Drone bombs damaged two fuel depot centers in the province of Smolensk, 300 kilometers from Ukraine, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. So far this year, around twenty Russian energy facilities have already been attacked. British intelligence services estimate that Russia has lost 10% of fuel production capacity. The analysis company Kpler indicated on April 18 that Russian diesel exports have decreased by 25% and the Bloomberg agency has quantified that crude oil refining is at the lowest level in the last year. Washington has asked Ukraine to stop these operations because it could destabilize global oil prices.
Despite sanctions imposed by Ukraine’s Western allies, Russia remains one of the world’s leading oil and gas exporters, including to the European Union. Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense, made his Government’s position clear in an April 9 appearance before the Senate: “These attacks could have a harsh impact on the global energy market. “It is better for Ukraine to focus on tactical objectives and operations that can directly influence the fighting.”
Celeste Wallander, Assistant Secretary of Defense of the US Government, went further in a statement before Congress on April 10, accusing Ukraine of doing the same thing that Russia is doing: destroying the civilian energy grid. “We are concerned about this issue of critical infrastructure being attacked when it comes to civilian targets, because Ukraine is committed to the highest standards of respecting the laws of armed conflict, and this is one of the elements of being a European democracy. “, he pointed.
Republican Congressman Austin Scott replied to Wallander that the invading air forces are destroying the Ukrainian energy system, and that kyiv has the same right to do so. The Joe Biden Administration policy insisted on its opposition: “We are concerned that civilian targets are being attacked when we are supporting this country.” Already at the end of March, at a security conference in kyiv, Wallander and the former secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council Oleskii Danilov had a clash over the repeated attacks on Russian refineries. Danilov settled the issue by warning that Ukraine would attack wherever it saw fit.
Washington Post revealed on April 15 that the first US warning was personally communicated by Vice President Kamala Harris to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference last February. According to this newspaper, Harris asked that this offensive stop and Zelensky left the meeting very angry. The Ukrainian Government has reiterated to Washington that it is using its own weapons and not the arsenal provided by its NATO allies. It is a condition that the main powers that support Ukraine have underlined: their weapons cannot be used to strike on Russian soil. The bombings against the Russian oil industry, like the one this Wednesday, are being carried out with drones manufactured in Ukraine by the intelligence services of the Ministry of Defense (GUR) and the security services of the Ministry of the Interior (SSU).
long range missiles
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Washington had until now refused to supply kyiv with the long-range ATACMS missiles for fear that they would be aimed at targets in Russia. Zelensky announced on April 22 that he had received Biden’s approval to include this ammunition in the 57 billion euros that the Senate and the House of Representatives have approved these days. This first shipment, valued at about 935 million euros, must arrive in Ukraine in the coming weeks. The distrust of the White House had gone so far as to modify the Himars rocket launcher batteries so that they could not be used to fire long-range ammunition.
kyiv is proving to have the upper hand in this particular duel with its great ally. Since April 6, when the GUR sabotaged an oil pipeline in Rostov province, two weeks had passed without action against the Russian energy sector. The media interpreted that American pressure had had an effect. But a new attack was reported on April 20, just hours before the decisive vote in the House of Representatives. Drone bombs destroyed three electrical substations and a fuel tank plant. Ukrainian media claim that it was the SSU that returned to action this Wednesday, damaging fuel depots in Smolensk, just one day after the US Senate reaffirmed with its votes multi-million dollar assistance for the invaded country.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Tuesday a new military assistance plan for Ukraine valued at almost 600 million euros, the largest for his country in the more than two years of war and which is added to the 2.9 billion budgeted in assistance from London to Kiev for 2024 and 2025. Among the weapons that will be provided include more units of the Franco-British-produced Storm Shadow long-range missiles, the only long-range rocket currently in use in the Ukrainian army. Germany has refused to hand over its Taurus missiles precisely out of fear that they will be used to destroy targets on Russian territory.
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