This week, fighting continued to rage along the front lines. Ukraine continues its strike campaign, seeking to isolate Crimea. It also maintains attacks on Russia’s oil refining facilities deep inside the country.
The Tavriyska thermal power plant, the building of the border guard service of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Armyansk and fuel bases in Feodosiya were among the targets of Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea overnight on Monday. The Ukrainian military also struck the Dubna satellite communications center in the Moscow region between Sunday and Monday. A Ukrainian missile strike hit the Sborka semiconductor plant in Russia’s Voronezh on Monday. The plant reportedly produces Pantsir surface-to-air missile system and parts for Iskander-K and Kh-101 missiles.
Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces carried out strikes against more than 60 targets in Crimea and across other occupied territories overnight on Tuesday, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Major Robert Brovdi who goes by the call sign Magyar said. He confirmed on Wednesday that Ukrainian drones had hit Sevastopol’s main power substation. Russia’s Crimean conquest is turning into a deadly mess, The Economist said on Tuesday.
Ukraine struck two oil refineries in Russia’s Ufa on Thursday, 1,400 kilometers away from the border. Ukraine’s strike campaign has disabled more than 40 per cent of Russia’s total oil refining capacity, new site The New Voice of Ukraine said on Wednesday.
The EU is transferring 3.2 billion euros to Ukraine as the first installment of the 90 billion euro support loan, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said in opening remarks at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, Poland, on Thursday. The EU will also send the first funds of a total of 6 billion euros for drone production to Ukraine, she said.
Zelenskyi approves 40-day campaign by security service to influence Russia to end war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Thursday he had approved “a 40-day operation by the [Security] Service to influence the aggressor state in order to press for an end to the war.”
In a post to X, he said he had heard a report by acting head of Ukraine’s Security Service, Major General Yevheniy Khmara on “our long-range sanctions plan, mid-range sanctions” and the agency’s results on the battlefield, specifically ones demonstrated by the Alpha Special Operations Center.
Ukraine’s Security Service has been excelling on the battlefield for several months in a row through the use of drones of various types, Zelenskyi said. The Alpha Special Operations Center “leads in terms of the occupier’s personnel and equipment neutralized,” he added.
