As of: January 26, 2024, 6:37 p.m
By: Denise Dörries
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With air strikes on oil centers, Ukraine has set itself the goal of weakening Russia's energy exports.
This poses a major threat to the Russian economy.
Moscow – Russia’s economy benefits predominantly from oil exports.
In order to weaken this main artery of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, Ukraine is relying primarily on air strikes with the aim of hitting oil centers in Russia.
This was also the case with a drone attack that recently occurred.
This caused a major fire at a Rosneft oil refinery in the southern Russian city of Tuapse on the Black Sea coast.
The consequences are likely to cost Putin dearly.
Ukrainian armed forces have launched an airstrike on an oil depot in the Russian city of Klintsy.
The result was a major fire because the fuel containers burned.
© IMAGO/Russia Emergencies Ministry
Russia's economy soon to be on the rocks?
Ukraine relies on shelling of oil factories
The Ukrainian air guard attack on Thursday morning (January 25) is no longer an isolated incident, as the Russian newspaper
Moscow Times
reported.
Looking at the past week in the Ukraine war, the attack in Tuapse was the fourth on Russia's oil and gas infrastructure.
The attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces are particularly problematic because Russia relies on its oil exports and energy industry.
These make up around 30 percent of the Russian budget and are therefore crucial for financing the war in Ukraine, as the US news magazine
Newsweek
wrote.
Russia's energy industry has already been weakened by Western sanctions in response to the war of aggression against Ukraine, but it is seen as a lifeline for Putin's economy.
In March 2022, US President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports.
Putin viewed this step as an attack on the “main artery” of the Russian economy.
Devastating Ukraine Attack: “Problems at Russian Oil Refineries Have Become Systemic”
For the first time in the Ukraine war, Ukrainians targeted Putin's home region of Leningrad on January 18 with a drone strike on an oil terminal in St. Petersburg.
“Problems at Russian oil refineries have become systemic,” said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister.
Another drone strike by the Ukrainian armed forces hit a major gas export terminal near St. Petersburg three days later.
It was a gas condensate plant owned by Novatek PJSC in the port of Ust-Luga.
The airstrike caused a major fire, the
Kyiv Post
newspaper reported .
The
Bloomberg
news group cited industry data and said that a successful attack by the Ukrainian air force on Russia's two major oil terminals in the Baltic Sea could stop exports.
If the Ust-Luga and Primorsk centers fail, Russia will face losses worth billions, as around 1.5 million barrels of oil are exported per day.
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Russia's energy exports in danger: "In case of mass attacks, Russia cannot stop it"
A major fire broke out in an oil depot in Klintsy in Russia's Bryansk region following a drone attack on January 19th.
An official said the factory was an “important transit hub for transporting fuels and lubricants for the needs of Russian troops.”
Smaller incidents on energy suppliers in Russia were already reported last year, but with the start of the new year the attacks increased significantly in intensity.
“This will be a major headache for the Russian war effort.
The current attacks are still small in scale and use a handful of drones, but these have already caused significant damage,” said open source intelligence outlet
Tendar
.
“If Ukraine begins mass attacks on these ports, Russian air defenses will not be able to stop the outcome, even if they destroy 99 percent of all drones.”