Ukraine Is Increasing Its Long Range Strikes On Russian Territory

That's one way for Russians to stay warm...Ukraine appears to be having as much or more success hitting Russian defense-related targets than is Russia on Ukraine, largely because the Russian attacks are indiscriminate, often striking civilian targets. 

Ukraine is becoming increasingly effective at disrupting Russia's war machine supplies. JL 

Matthew Luxmoore reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Drones struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Friday, as Ukraine is stepping up attacks on Russian territory to wear down its war machine. Ukrainian forces are proving increasingly adept at hitting high-value Russian targets in a strike campaign that is playing out in the air, on land and at sea, and relying on a growing domestic industry producing drones and missiles that can strike targets hundreds of miles away. Ukraine has used drone attacks on oil refineries and other facilities to interdict Russian weapons supplies to the front lines and complicate the delivery of fuel used to keep armored vehicles and other equipment running in harsh winter conditions.

Drones struck an oil refinery in Russia’s south on Friday, as Ukraine is stepping up attacks on Russian territory to try to wear down its neighbor’s war machine.

Footage posted to social media showed emergency services in Russia working to douse columns of fire engulfing four oil reservoirs at a facility operated by state oil company Rosneft in Bryansk region near the border with Ukraine.

Aleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of Bryansk region, said the fire broke out after the facility was struck by munitions falling from a Ukrainian drone downed by Russian air defenses. He said 13 fire engine crews were working to put out the flames, and no casualties were reported.

The latest attack, for which Kyiv hasn’t officially claimed responsibility, comes as the war in Ukraine grinds on into its third year with neither side close to achieving a breakthrough. After the failure of a major Ukrainian counteroffensive over the summer aimed at ousting Russian forces from its territory, Kyiv has sought to degrade Russia’s military capabilities with a series of precision blows.

Ukraine’s Western backers have barred the use of weapons they provide against Russian territory, meaning that Kyiv employs domestically produced long-range aerial drones. Ukrainian officials didn’t openly claim responsibility for the attack on the oil refinery, but celebrated the damage.

Ukrainian forces are proving increasingly adept at hitting high-value Russian targets in a strike campaign that is playing out in the air, on land and at sea, and relying on a growing domestic industry producing drones and missiles that can strike targets hundreds of miles away.

Ukrainian servicemen operated a drone near the Ukrainian town of Horlivka this week, part of a growing offensive strategy. PHOTO: STRINGER/REUTERS

Russian authorities have reported regular drone attacks by Ukraine in recent weeks. On Thursday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city’s air defenses had downed a drone targeting the Russian capital. Russia’s Defense Ministry said another was downed near St. Petersburg in the north. Russia said recently that a Ukrainian attack on the border region of Belgorod killed 22 people.

Ukraine has sought to use drone attacks on oil refineries and other Russian facilities to interdict Russian weapons supplies to the front lines and complicate the delivery of fuel used to keep armored vehicles and other equipment running in harsh winter conditions.

“When you’re dealing with an oil refinery that’s involved in supplying the occupying force with oil, among other things, then this creates logistical difficulties for them,” Andrei Yusov, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said about Friday’s attack in an interview on Ukrainian TV. “It gives our defenders space and time to maneuver.”

Ukrainian forces also claim to have taken down at least seven Russian planes in the past month. In recent months they have destroyed or damaged a number of warships and vessels docked in Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula that is occupied by Moscow and used as a base from which to launch missile attacks on Ukraine.

In doing so, Ukraine hasn’t only weakened Russia’s formidable air force but has managed to shift the balance of power in the Black Sea, dealing a heavy blow to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and forcing Moscow to relocate parts of its navy further from Ukrainian cities that have been pounded by missiles launched from Russian ships.

An apartment in Odesa was destroyed by a drone this week that local Ukraine said was launched by Russia. PHOTO: OLEKSANDR GIMANOV/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

But the successful recent attacks by Ukraine come at a vulnerable moment for the country, with U.S. and European Union aid packages stalled. In addition, Russia has ramped up production of missiles and drones as it continues to reorient its economy for the purpose of serving the war. 

In an interview with Ukrainian media this week, Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy chief of Ukrainian military intelligence, said Russia is focusing its latest attacks on damaging Ukrainian military facilities in a bid to undermine its ability to fight back.

“Russia’s main efforts are focused on destroying our infrastructure,” he told the RBC-Ukraine news website. “First and foremost that means parts of our military industrial complex, headquarters, control systems and specific units located on the front line.”

Skibitsky said Russia is now able to produce up to 130 strategic missiles a month, and through the course of 2023 made around two million artillery shells, bolstering its war effort as Kyiv struggles to source ammunition from Western partners who lack the capacity to produce the quantities Russia can.

Russia’s heavy aerial bombardments with missiles and drones are also putting pressure on Ukraine’s stocks of air-defense missiles, which it receives primarily from the West. In a video address to the nation on Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to continue appealing to Western allies for help bolstering the country’s air defenses.