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The Russians are unable to halt Ukrainian strikes on their energy facilities, and this could become an effective lever to end the war, especially if the West provides Ukraine with additional long-range capabilities and restricts the operations of Russia’s shadow fleet.
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. forces in Europe, shared this opinion on his X account, Ukrinform reports.
“The Russians don’t seem able to stop it,” the former American commander noted.
In this context, he emphasized the need for Western countries to support Ukraine.
“Supporting Ukraine’s efforts to disrupt Russian oil exports — including by providing long-range precision strike capabilities and shutting down the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea — will help bring this war to a successful conclusion,” Hodges stressed.
As reported by Ukrinform, last week SBU Special Operations Center “A” drones twice reached Bashkortostan and struck Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat.
In addition, overnight Wednesday a fire broke out at the Novoyaroslavl oil refinery (Slavneft-YANOS) in Yaroslavl, Russia. Although Moscow denies it was the result of Ukrainian strikes, the shutdown of Slavneft-YANOS — one of Russia’s top five refineries by capacity — represents a serious blow to the Russian energy sector.
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