Vladimir Putin is smarting from one of his worst weeks of the four-year war after Ukraine staged punishing new overnight missile and drone strikes on Russia.
Giant explosives plant JSC Promsintez in Chapayevsk, Samara region, was in flames after a reported strike by a Kyiv-made long-range Flamingo cruise missile. The factory 550 miles from the nearest Ukrainian controlled territory — is crucial to the Russian war effort. Separately, a swarm of drones attacked and ignited Novo-Yaroslavsky Refinery in Yaroslavl. A downed unmanned plane killed a child and wounded his parents. In Cherepovets, another plant AT Apatit – a key Russian producer of ammonium nitrate, used in military explosives – was also hit. The latest blows come amid evidence that earlier mega-strikes by Ukraine on key Russian ports are crippling Putin’s ability to bolster his war coffers from the rising world oil prices due to the Iran conflict.
The Moscow regime was forced to ban gasoline exports “with the aim of stabilising prices and ensuring priority supply to the domestic market”.
Petrol pump prices have soared 11% this month.
Blame is put on Ukraine’s precision strikes on oil exporting ports Ust-Luga and Primorsk, both seen in flames this week after Putin’s air defences failed to block Ukrainian drones, and a strike on second largest oil refinery Kirishi which came ahead of the Yaroslavl attack.
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