Ukraine creates ‘long-range’ command to step up strikes on Russia
By Yuliia Dysa
KYIV, July 10 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kiev’s campaign against Russian energy and logistics has forced Moscow to ban diesel exports and restrict shipping near the Sea of Azov, which neighbors the Black Sea, and that he has established a “long-range influence” command within Ukraine’s armed forces.
For months, Ukrainian attack drones have been targeting thousands of kilometers of key energy infrastructure across Russia in what Kiev describes as long-term sanctions that are a primary contributor to Russia’s state budget and support its war effort.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has reported attacks almost daily and officials have said it was only fair to bring the war to Russia more than four years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.
“Today, I signed a decree establishing a special command within the Armed Forces, a command aimed at creating a long-term and, indeed, global impact on Russia in response to this war,” Zelenskiy said in his evening address to the nation. he said.
“This command should focus 100 percent of available resources on further reducing Russia’s war-fighting capability.”
In what has become an almost daily ritual for Ukrainians worn down by Russia’s brutal attacks that have resulted in devastating civilian deaths, Kiev’s military bloggers begin each morning by reporting the results of deep strikes and sharing images of Russian energy facilities in flames.
On Friday alone, Ukraine hit the Ilsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, one of the largest in southern Russia, and the Ust-Luga oil refinery complex in the Leningrad region, the Ukrainian general staff said. Both are common targets.
An oil terminal and an oil depot in the Rostov region were also struck, with more explosions and fires, according to the statement.
Russia on Wednesday banned diesel exports to ensure adequate domestic supplies amid a weeks-long fuel crisis in the occupied Crimean peninsula and significant shortages in other regions. Many refineries in Russia have had to temporarily suspend their operations at some point.
As a result of the strikes, domestic gasoline production fell to about 65% of capacity, according to two industry sources and Reuters calculations.
ECONOMY STRIKE
Zelenskiy and military officials are urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war before massive attacks deep within Russia further damage Russia’s economy, once unimaginable for its smaller and less war-ready neighbor.
Putin has rejected calls for peace talks and the attacks have strengthened his resolve to continue fighting, the sources said.
Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s drone forces and one of the masterminds of the long-range campaign, said on Friday that Ukraine had hit 10 tankers in the Sea of Azov, among about 50 fuel ships damaged in the past five days.
Brovdi said Moscow’s “shadow fleet is shrinking.”
Russia has temporarily halted shipping through a canal connecting the Don River to the Sea of Azov, two sources in the grain export industry said.
Experts say this decision could affect almost a quarter of Russian wheat exports in the region and deal another potential blow to the Russian economy.
Zelenskiy said that Ukraine’s proposals to bring peace closer have received support from Putin’s inner circle.
“They understand what is happening and that there is no alternative but peace,” he said.
The successful attacks mark a significant departure from the early days of the occupation and the years of harrowing wars; But experts warn that it is too early to say that Ukraine has changed the course of the conflict.
Ukraine, which has chronically inadequate air defenses, continues to be exposed to Russian ballistic missile attacks, which Zelenskiy described as Moscow’s last advantage in the war.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Peter Graff and David Gaffen)
