An advisor to Ukraine\u2019s defense minister was wounded in an overnight Russian drone attack. Ukraine strikes Russia\u2019s two large landing ships, an oil refinery and a drone plant. The Russian economy is faltering despite an oil windfall, according to FT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia launched 142 attack drones at Ukraine overnight on Monday. The drones included ones of the Shahed, Gerbera and Italmas types as well as other unmanned aerial systems, the Ukrainian Air Force said Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drones were fired from the area of Russia\u2019s Kursk, Bryansk, Oryol, Millerovo, Shatalovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk as well as from occupied Donetsk and Hvardiyske in occupied Crimea. Around 100 of the unmanned aerial systems were the Shaheds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force and other branches of the Ukrainian military deployed aircraft, surface-to-air missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile teams to repel the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine\u2019s military said it had shot down or otherwise neutralized 113 drones of the Shahed, Gerbera, Italmas and other types in the north, south and east of the country. Twenty-eight drones hit target in 18 locations and the falling debris fell in six other places, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advisor on defense technology to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, drone and electronic warfare expert Serhiy \u201cFlash\u201d Beskrestnov was wounded when a Russian jet powered Shahed drone hit his house overnight on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLast night, the Russians tried to kill me. They fired four jet powered Shaheds. One guided jet powered Shahed drone hit a wall of my house. I no longer have a house,\u201d Beskrestnov said in a post to social media Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also posted a photo of himself in a hospital bed, saying that he was injured. \u201cI was injured, but what\u2019s key is that I miraculously survived. I was morally prepared for such a turn of events, and it will not stop me,\u201d Beskrestnov said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Prymary (Phantoms) unit of the Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine\u2019s Defense Ministry struck two large Russian landing ships, the Yamal and Nikolay Filchenkov, in occupied Crimea overnight on Sunday, the agency said in a post to social media Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vessels are part of Russia\u2019s Black Sea Fleet. They were docked at the Sevastopol Bay at the moment of the strike. Both warships were disabled, Ukraine\u2019s defense intelligence said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Yamal is a Project 775 large landing ship that was built in 1988. It is 112.5 meters long and can carry up to 500 tons of cargo, including armored vehicles and infantry. The ship\u2019s tentative cost exceeds 80 million dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nikolay Filchenkov is a Project 1171 large landing ship that was built in 1975. It has a capacity for carrying up to 1,000 tons, or dozens of armored vehicles and a large infantry contingent. The ship\u2019s tentative cost exceeds 70 million dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Prymary unit also destroyed a Russian Podlet-K1 radar system in Sevastopol worth of around 5 million dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian troops struck the Tuapse oil refinery in Russia\u2019s Krasnodar region overnight on Monday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. The strike hit an oil storage tank, igniting a fire. The facility was earlier targeted by Ukrainian attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian Service of RFE\/RL released a satellite image of the Atlant Aero plant in Russia\u2019s Taganrog on Monday, which it said showed that at least two workshops had been damaged in a Ukrainian strike with Neptune missiles overnight on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plant that manufactures Molniya drones was earlier struck on January 13. A building damaged in the earlier attack was demolished. Atlant Aero is situated next to the Beriev Aircraft Plant that was also targeted a number of times, RFE\/RL said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s ailing economy has failed to recover even as rising oil prices during the war in the Middle East have boosted the Kremlin\u2019s depleted coffers, according to Sweden\u2019s military intelligence chief, cited by a Financial Times article published on Monday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Nilsson, head of Sweden\u2019s Military Intelligence and Security Service, told the FT that Russia would need prices for Urals crude, its main blend of oil, to remain above $100 a barrel for a year to close its budget deficit, and for significantly longer than that to smooth over its other economic problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Nilsson said Russia would struggle further to finance its own invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year, if the US and Israel\u2019s ceasefire with Iran held and oil prices stabilised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey still have a systemic problem,\u201d Nilsson said in a rare interview in his Stockholm office. \u201cIt\u2019s not a sustainable growth model to produce material for the war that is then destroyed on the battlefield,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nilsson said Russia\u2019s economic problems had spread to the defence sector itself, which has accounted for most of the country\u2019s growth as the civilian sector struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moscow was diverting funding to the areas where the nature of the war was changing, particularly unmanned systems and long-range weapons, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But outside the drone industry, Russia\u2019s military-industrial complex was lossmaking, rife with corruption and embezzlement, and dependent on lending from state-run banks, Nilsson added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sweden had intelligence indicating that Russia was systematically manipulating data to fool Ukraine\u2019s western allies into believing its economy had withstood the strain of its lavish war spending and western sanctions, Nilsson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nilsson said the real situation was even worse and the Russian central bank was underestimating inflation, which it believed was closer to the 15 per cent key interest rate than the official 5.86 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sweden agreed with the BND, Germany\u2019s foreign intelligence agency, that Russia was understating its budget deficit by $30bn, and had also noticed some financial indicators that could point to a future banking crisis, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you have created a system like Putin has, he might not know how bad the economic situation really is. But even with the false info he gets, you ultimately can\u2019t run from all of this,\u201d Nilsson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other news, Germany\u2019s foreign intelligence agency said in February that Russia\u2019s military spending last year accounted for half of its budget and 10 per cent of its GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Latvia\u2019s intelligence agency SAB said in a report earlier this month that \u201cdespite Russia\u2019s public announcements claiming its economy is successfully adapting to the impact of the Western sanctions, internal estimates made by several Russian institutions confirm that sanctions have already inflicted and will continue to create losses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"