Summary
A massive Ukrainian drone strike targeted Russian oil refineries and infrastructure, including Moscow’s largest refinery, which supplies 50% of the city’s fuel.
The attack also hit the Druzhba pipeline control station, halting Russian oil exports to Hungary. With over 337 drones striking multiple regions, the operation exploited gaps in Russia’s air defenses.
Hungary, heavily reliant on Russian energy, called the pipeline attack a threat to its sovereignty.
Analysts suggest continued strikes could pressure Russia’s economy and energy dominance, potentially influencing ceasefire negotiations.
I don’t believe that withdrawing from Kursk because the Russians are gaining ground day after day is part of some sort of grand plan.
I don’t exactly either. You ignored half my comment. Do you believe it when Russia says similar things? If so, why? Ukraine has an image they need to sell, but it’s even more important for Russia, so don’t believe them either.
Ok so if you don’t believe Ukraine here, what other explanation is there to justify the withdrawal from Kursk.
We don’t have to listen to the Russian narrative, we can just think about why Ukrainians would withdraw.
Man, you really don’t like justifying your beliefs. You’re always in the offense so you don’t have to answer anything about why you supposedly believe what you’re saying. You just pivot to some other shit. I can answer all your questions because my beliefs aren’t just based on faith like yours seem to be.
Why are they retreating? It’s because it was untenable to hold their current positions without large losses, and they’d gain nothing for it. Why wouldn’t they retreat. Do I think that was the plan all along? Not really. It has worked to draw forces from the east and allowed Ukraine to push there, to great effect though.
It’s not 4D chess. It’s just a sound strategy to retreat while you can without taking heavy losses and use that time to inflict heavy losses on your enemy. Russia isn’t doing as well in this regard. They’re taking dirt without strategic wins. They lose tons of men and assets taking what amounts to nothing. Holding ground does not create a strategic victory unless it creates an opportunity. Most of what Russia takes doesn’t. Dirt doesn’t do anything for you.
If you’d like to prove you actually have a brain, go to the above comments and answer the questions. Otherwise, you appear to be no better than a bot that can’t think for themselves.
Can you avoid using derogatory terms against me? I’m willing to have a civil discussion with people of varied opinions, as long as it remains civil.
Ok so we agree Ukraine is withdrawing from Kursk because they got kicked out. It’s a pretty big deal considering Ukraine was relying on that to negotiate the exchange of territories with Russia during the negotiations; and now has lost that little leverage it had.
Russia is expanding its territory steadily, it might just be dirt today but it does not have to remain dirt in the future.
The Russia has not been gaining ground after early 2022. During the year 2024 they gained more ground than anybody in the west expected, because USA stopped its weapon deliveries for 6 months in the end of June 2024.
When the Russia gained ground exceptionally fast, it gained 0.7 % of Ukraine’s total territory in that one year. Less than a percent. Okay, technically that is indeed gaining ground, but in the big picture of the war that’s an irrelevant amount. If the Russia manages to gain 5 % of Ukraine’s territory in 12 months, it’s okay to say they are gaining ground. But with the speed they are “advancing” now… Heh.
The Russia gaining ground at a speed of 0.7 % of Ukraine’s territory and losing 400 000 soldiers as dead and wounded per year in the process is indeed part of some grand plan of Ukraine’s. The Russia won’t run out of people with that pace for another 250 years or so, but it will run out of soldiers, because it is losing them faster than it’s able to recruit new ones.
You see, we agree Ukraine will run out of soldiers soon.
Stop being so obtuse, Yuri :)
Why would it? Finland has a total army strength of quite precisely one million if you count in the reserve.
Ukraine has fielded about that many soldiers altogether, perhaps a little less.
Finland has a population of 5.6 million, Ukraine has a population of 40 million. Per capita they have about one seventh of the amount of soldiers compared to Finland. Meaning, they should be, by all logic, able to find another seven times as many soldiers as they have found now. It’s weird that the do not!
While Ukrainians’ will to go to front is far greater than that of Germans’ or the French, the size of Ukraine’s army tells of a big problem with motivation. It is super weird, but even under the current circumstances, most Ukrainians don’t bother joining to help protect their country. (And because they don’t, the current soldiers almost never get relieved for holidays, and that’s a reason why people don’t want to join the army…)
That is a self-correcting problem. If it happens that Ukraine runs out of soldiers so badly that the Russia will start advancing at a speed of five percent of Ukraine’s total territory per year instead of the current 0.7 %, then Ukrainians will get scared and more people will be motivated to move their butts. And then there are enough soldiers again.
The Russia does not have such a self-correcting mechanism with its army size. Actually the opposite: While Ukraine doing badly will motivate more Ukrainians to come for help, the Russia doing badly means their economy is doing badly, and therefore their ability to pay good salaries for their soldiers will be doing badly. Their soldiers are in it for the money. No money --> extremely difficult to find enough Russian soldiers.
You’re being overly optimistic. Ukrainians are already tired of the war effort and as you said many of them aren’t interested in joining the war in the front lines.
Russia advancing faster will only make more people want to stop the massacre, or more people flee abroad.
Of course they want to stop the massacre. Like I said: if the Russia gets too close to winning, and therefore dramatically increasing the scale of the massacre, more people will join to help at the front. You know, it’s almost as if people didn’t want to die?!
That’s right, people don’t want to die, so it’s not likely they will join the front when the chances of dying are even higher than they are today.
They are Ukrainians. The Russia will do in all of Ukraine what it has been doing in the occupied areas. A Ukrainian has thus a far higher chance to die if he ends up under Russian occupation than if he tries to stop the Russia from occupying his country.
For Ukrainians it’s a no-brainer. “If my country will probably stay independent without my help, I will do nothing. But if it looks like my country might lose its independence, of course I want to decrease my risk of dying, so I will go to the front to defend this country.”
There are terror attacks against Ukrainian civilians every day. They are still torturing people who are not pro-Putin enough, like they have been doing for 11 years already. All of Ukraine will be one big Mariupol/Bucha/Kherson/Irpin, if the Russia manages to take over it. Why would anybody choose that?
No, a Ukrainian does not have far higher chances to die if he ends up under Russian occupation compared to if he tried to stop the Russian from occupying his country. It is obviously a lot more dangerous to fight on the front lines than just live life under occupation.