Ukraine launches major drone attack again on Russia
Ukraine launched another major drone strike against Russia overnight; launched hundreds of drones and once again hit St. It targeted oil infrastructure and military facilities near St. Petersburg.
Videos on the Internet, St. It shows large plumes of smoke rising from an oil facility in the port of St. Petersburg. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine successfully hit military targets around the Kronstadt naval base, as well as the oil infrastructure in the port.
The Russian defense ministry said about 500 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles participated in the attack. Moscow’s mayor said 200 people targeted the capital.
@ZelenskyyUa/X – PHOTO: In this screenshot taken from a video released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia’s St. Smoke rises after a Ukrainian drone attack near the city of St. Petersburg.
27 people killed and more than 100 injured in Kiev, Ukraine hit by Russia’s ‘massive’ attack
As its long-range drone campaign grows, Ukraine is now successfully striking oil refineries and infrastructure deep within Russia, as well as defense industrial facilities, on an almost daily basis.
As a result, many regions of Russia are experiencing fuel shortages, and people are filming themselves waiting in long queues at gas stations.
Ukraine’s drone strikes are bringing the war to the Russians like never before.
At the same time, Russia’s problems on the battlefield appear to be increasing. Ukraine’s increasingly effective campaign using medium-range drones targets Russia’s logistics and seeks to cut off supply lines to occupied Crimea.
Authorities in Crimea declared a state of emergency due to fuel shortages and imposed a curfew due to power outages resulting from Ukraine’s strike.
@ZelenskyyUa/X – PHOTO: In this screenshot taken from a video released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia’s St. Smoke rises following a Ukrainian drone strike near the city of St. Petersburg.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare appearance in uniform and visited a so-called military site overnight in a bid to signal he is keeping the war under close control.
@ZelenskyyUa/X – PHOTO: In this screenshot taken from a video released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia’s St. Smoke rises following a Ukrainian drone strike near the city of St. Petersburg.
Meanwhile, the Russian military claimed on Saturday that it had captured the city of Kostiantynivka, a key defense center in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
As Russia advanced towards the city, there is reason to doubt that it had fully captured it. Russia has repeatedly falsely claimed to be in control of cities, but this has been far from the case.
The fall of Kostiantynivka would be Moscow’s first significant battlefield success this year, and Russian officials are already hailing it as evidence that the war is heading Russia’s way despite signs that the war is turning in Kiev’s favor. However, for now, it is too early to say that the city has fallen.
While the fall of Kostiantynivka is significant, it is unlikely to allow Russia to move quickly towards capturing the entirety of Donbas, which Putin has identified as his priority.
Russia is barely advancing and may have lost more territory than it gained in May, according to Konrad Muzyka, a Polish military analyst and director of Rochan Consulting.
Russia’s gains also come at huge costs. Russian forces are suffering tens of thousands of casualties, according to independent analysts and Western intelligence assessments.
A report released this week by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) assessed that Russia’s military has now suffered nearly 1.4 million casualties, including 450,000 deaths.
According to the CSIS report, there were between 525,000 and 625,000 casualties in Ukraine.
