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machine by targeting Russia’s oil refineries with long-range missiles.
However, the Financial Times reported last week that the US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning senior SBU and GUR officials that drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation.
Russia crude oil refining production has dropped to a ten-month low and is down at 5mn barrels per day (bpd) from March 14-20, or a 10% fall year on year. after Ukraine began a drone war in February using new long-range domestically produced drones to attack Russia’s refining capacity deep inside Russian territory.
Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak denied that Washington had called on Kyiv to halt the drone strikes on Russian assets.
"This is fictitious information. After two years of full-scale war, no one will dictate to Ukraine the conditions for waging this war. Within the framework of international law, Ukraine can ‘degrease’ Russian instruments of warfare. Fuel is the basic tool of warfare. Ukraine will destroy its fuel infrastructure,” Podolyak said as cited by Ukrayinska Pravda.
Podolyak argued that Russia is in the midst of a major attack against Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure with genocidal intentions, while Ukraine has responded with its own attacks against the Russian infrastructure of war.
Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, followed up saying that Russia’s oil refineries are “legitimate targets of Ukraine from a military point of view.” According to her, Ukraine is acting in accordance with Nato standards in this case, in statements that defy the US concerns.
“We understand the requests of American partners. But we wage war with the capabilities, resources and practices that are available to us,” she said during the second Ukrainian Security Forum.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on his Nato allies to “close the skies” from the very first week of the war, but Nato has never responded, leaving Ukraine vulnerable to missile attacks. The supply of sophisticated anti-missile systems, and the US-made Patriot system in particular – have alleviated the problem somewhat, but the Patriot missiles are expensive and in short supply, whereas Russia has ramped up the production of cheap weaponised drones that it is firing at Ukraine in their droves.
Commenting on the hostile attack by the Russians on March 22, Stefanishyna welcomed the words of support from Ukraine’s Western allies, but words alone are insufficient, given the scale and intensity of the current attack.
"I want to draw attention to the fact that the situation is already very bad... Over the past two months we have received 10% of the planned financial resources
12 UKRAINE Country Report April 2024 www.intellinews.com