KIEV (dpa-AFX) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has emphasized the impact of recent attacks against targets in Russia. “We are sending the Russian war of aggression back home, to the only place from which the war came,” he said in his evening video address.
He referred to the increased attacks by Ukrainian long-range drones. “It used to be an event when dozens of Ukrainian drones attacked Russia, but today hundreds of our long-range attacks every day are no longer a sensation, but always good news, useful news.”
The successes of these Ukrainian attacks, especially against the Russian infrastructure, primarily against oil production and
-processing, according to Zelenskyj’s words, were not left out. After one
According to a Ukrainian intelligence report, Russian oil processing has declined by around ten percent in recent months. Above all, Russian oil companies are being forced to shut down wells. Russia can only reverse this under the most difficult conditions: “Funding losses are really very painful for them.”
Russia attacks refineries near Dnipropetrovsk
The Russian military launched a counterattack against Ukrainian refineries in the evening. Unspecified Naftogas Group objects in the Dnipropetrovsk region were hit and damaged with rockets and drones, Naftogas boss Serhiy Korezkyj said on Facebook. There is still no overview of the extent of the damage.
Zelenskyj: Holes in the Russian state budget
With the holes in the Russian state budget partially caused by the Ukrainian attacks, Russia will gradually be forced to end the war, said Zelensky. “Currently, many regions of the country are already in financial distress, and (Kremlin leader Vladimir) Putin is driving Russia into bankruptcy,” he said. The Ukrainian president based his statements on a report from his secret services on the situation in Russia, the details of which he did not want to elaborate on.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, which has been ongoing for more than four years, is expensive for Russia. Around 180 billion euros are planned for the military, armaments, national security and police forces – this corresponds to almost 40 percent of total expenditure. The Defense industry has boomed in recent years thanks to government subsidies and large orders. However, there have been signs of crisis in other sectors for some time.
According to the media, the budget problems in Russia have now reached the country’s provinces. The total deficit of the Russian regions had risen to more than 16 billion euros by the end of 2025 and was a record high since observations began, the Moscow daily “Kommersant” wrote in February, citing an evaluation of financial data it commissioned./cha/DP/he