ECOCIDE
Washington's Pleas Fall on Deaf Ears as Ukraine Strikes Russian Refineries
- Biden's top officials have pleaded with Kyiv to stop attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure.
- A source in the Ukrainian defense sector confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that Ukrainian drones had carried out attacks on oil infrastructure in the Smolensk region.
- The Financial Times, citing unnamed US officials, recently said long-range drones have hit at least 20 energy facilities deep within Russia so far this year.
Just days after the Biden administration signed a new military aid package worth billions of dollars to Ukraine, Kyiv launched a series of suicide drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. Biden's top officials have pleaded with Kyiv to stop attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure because of the fears that turmoil in crude markets would send pump prices in the US higher ahead of the presidential elections in November.
"Our region is again under attack by Ukrainian UAVs," Smolensk Governor Vasily Anokhin wrote in a post on Telegram on Wednesday. Kamikaze drones damaged oil facilities in western Russia.
Another drone attack hit the Lipetsk region further south, which is home to steel production plants and pharmaceutical sites, Governor Igor Artamonov said.
"The Kyiv criminal regime tried to hit infrastructure in Lipetsk industrial zone," Artamonov said.
The Moscow Times pointed out:
A source in the Ukrainian defense sector confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that drones in the service of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had carried out the attacks.
The source made no mention of the attack on Lipetsk but claimed two oil depots were destroyed in the Smolensk region.
"Rosneft lost two storage and pumping bases for fuels and lubricants in the towns of Yartsevo and Rozdorovo," the source said, referring to the Russian state-controlled energy giant.
The Financial Times, citing unnamed US officials, recently said long-range drones have hit at least 20 energy facilities deep within Russia so far this year. Kyiv's drone attacks on Russia's energy complex have been frightening for the Biden administration, as Brent prices have risen to the $90/bbl level on higher war risk premiums. Higher energy costs feed into inflation as stagflation concerns mount in the US. Also, gasoline pump prices in the US are inching closer to the politically sensitive $4 level.
According to AAA data, the average cost of gas at the pump across the US was $3.66 as of Thursday, up from $3.10 in mid-January.
"The recent uptick in US consumer price inflation, driven by services, housing and fuel, is already of concern to the Biden administration, which is hoping to secure a second term in the November election," Markus Korhonen, senior associate at geopolitical risk consultancy S-RM, told Newsweek.
In recent weeks, Brent prices jumped to the $90bbl to $92bbl range on a higher war risk premium as Israel and Iran volleyed missiles and drones at each other. Prices sank to as low as the $85bbl handle as the market saw the Middle East conflict was just theatrics. However, prices have increased from $85bbl earlier this week, to $89.50 on Friday morning - perhaps on new fears of tighter Russia supplies.
The latest Bloomberg data shows Russian seaborne crude exports hit a multi-month high in the four weeks to April 21. Refineries in the country have struggled to be repaired from the series of drone attacks as oil processing sinks to lows last seen in May 2023 when floods forced the Orsk refinery offline.
So far, Ukraine has only attacked oil-processing facilities deep within Russia, avoiding crude and crude product export ports.
"Should Ukraine begin also targeting crude oil facilities, this could threaten Russia's overall production and exports and, more meaningfully, global oil prices would tick up, driving up inflation and cost-of-living pressures in the US and elsewhere," said Korhonen, adding, "It would also raise the prospects of Russia retaliating, for example, targeting energy infrastructure that the West relies on."
The ultimate goal of Ukraine's drone attacks is to reduce Moscow's oil revenues that finance the war. This means that Russia's crude export ports will be targeted at some point. And we're 100% sure the Biden administration is terrified about this ahead of the elections.
If that happens, "it would not only bring up the price of oil, it would put a lot of pressure on inflation because of the impact on prices," said O'Donnell.
The question becomes when Kyiv begins hitting Russia's crude export terminals.
By Zerohedge.com
Russia, Ukraine Exchange Strikes on Refinery and Gas Targets
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine sustained a heavy Russian missile barrage overnight aimed at gas infrastructure and other targets, while striking back a Russian oil refinery with drones.
Moscow reported a Ukrainian drone attack on the Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, the first such strike since early this month.
The state-run news agency Tass said the strike caused a fire, which partially suspended refinery operations. The plant was hit by 10 drones, Tass said, citing the refinery’s representative. Russia’s defense ministry said 66 drones were intercepted and downed over the Krasnodar region.
UAVs from the Security Service of Ukraine targeted the Kushchevsk military airfield and the Slavyansk and Ilsky refineries in the Krasnodar region, according to a person with knowledge of the operation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. Russian officials and media haven’t referred to the Ilsky facility.
The Slavyansk refinery is capable of processing 4 million tons of oil a year and is one of the closest facilities to war zone in eastern Ukraine. It was previously hit by drones in March along with many other large Russian refineries. Some of the affected facilities are still processing less than before the attacks.
US warned Ukraine that attacks on Russian oil refineries were impacting global energy markets and urged Kyiv to focus on military targets. The most recent drone attack on a Russian oil refinery happened on April 2.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, some 21 Russian missiles of various types were intercepted overnight out of 34 fired, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram. Poland’s army scrambled jets twice when Russian missiles flew close to its border.
Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement that recent strikes, including the overnight barrage, had targeted energy and defense facilities and railway infrastructure in response to Kyiv’s attempts to “damage Russian energy and industrial facilities.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy renewed his call for additional air-defense systems from Ukraine’s allies.
“The world has all the resources to assist us in intercepting every missile and drone,” Zelenskiy said on X, formerly Twitter. “All that is required is for the necessary political decisions and agreements to be implemented.”
Read more: Russian Forces Advance as Ukraine Awaits Fresh US Weapons
Targets fired at by Kremlin troops included energy facilities in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions in the west, and the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, the national grid operator Ukrenergo said in statement on Facebook.
State-run Naftogaz said gas infrastructure facilities came under attack but that service to clients and to Ukrainian consumers weren’t interrupted.
“Hits on power plants in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk put thousands of Ukrainians in the dark,” Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, said on X. “Other cities were hit as well, including damage to a Kharkiv hospital.”
Separately, Der Spiegel magazine reported that Ukraine has asked Germany for an additional 812 Vector surveillance drones, on top of the 212 the government in Berlin has already provided.
The vertical take-off and landing drones are manufactured by Quantum-Systems GmbH, a Munich-based company that opened a second facility in Ukraine this month at a ceremony attended by Germany Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
--With assistance from Iain Rogers.
(Updates with Russian defense ministry in 8th paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
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