According to insiders, the USA wants to stop Ukrainian attacks on Russia's oil depots. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister therefore reminds Washington of US tactics in World War II.
Vilnius – Ukraine has recently increasingly attacked oil depots in Russia. According to insider reports, the USA was not very enthusiastic about it. Washington is said to have called on Kiev to end drone attacks on refineries, the
Financial Times
reported. The suspected reason: rising oil prices. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis now joined the debate - with a short contribution on Platform X and a comparison to the Second World War.
Foreign Minister of Lithuania uses bombing of Nazi oil depots as a comparison
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis reacted on Platform X last Wednesday (April 10) to the alleged US demand not to attack Russian refineries. “During World War II, the Allies bombed Nazi Germany’s oil depots as a military target of paramount importance,” Landsbergis wrote.
The minister was referring to the US air offensive against the German fuel industry that ran between 1944 and 1945. At the end, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister added laconically: “That’s the tweet.” His Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna also commented on the topic a day later, but with more detailed arguments.
Criticism of alleged US recommendation: US general also calls refineries “legitimate targets”
It is not worth "dramatizing the attacks on Russian refineries while Russia carries out massive daily airstrikes and has systematically destroyed Ukraine's energy infrastructure and continues to occupy the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," Tshakna wrote on X on Thursday. What Ukraine is doing is just Self-defense. “Ukraine is attacking military targets that directly provide fuel for the war machine [...].”
Military experts also came to this conclusion. Former US General Ben Hodges, for example, recommended that Ukraine not follow US demands to stop the attack. If someone in the US government actually said that to Ukraine, it would be “an absolutely terrible recommendation,” the military man said in an interview with the BBC. “Ukraine should ignore it. [Refineries] are legitimate targets.” Because international law covers attacks on military targets.
Attacks on oil depots: That's why Ukraine is relying on the fight in the depths
For Ukraine, the drone attacks are not just about reducing fuel supplies to the front and causing logistical problems. Kyiv also wants to punch a hole in Putin's treasury. The Kremlin boss is also financing his war through sales of oil and gas, which make up around 40 percent of Russian state revenue. “Oil and gas revenues enable Russia to continue its bloody aggression,” Estonia’s Foreign Minister also commented on Twitter.
For this reason, Estonia has always supported the reduction of Russian energy revenues - whether through sanctions, price caps or import stops. “If strikes against military targets on Russian soil contribute to reducing Russian revenue and making it more difficult for Russia to wage this war, then the strikes serve the right goal,” concluded the Estonian Foreign Minister at the end of his contribution X called on the West to supply air defense.