In the latest American revolution of the Ukraine war, former US president Donald Trump was allegedly strong-arming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. DeSantis has criticized Zelenskyy for not giving territory to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In many ways, that was the message that Trump delivered—an alarming message. He threatened that Ukraine would endure horrific punishment if it did not reach an agreement with Russia.
One of the authors’ key contributions was to leak the chilling directive which stated, “Your nation needs to be frozen and wrecked now if Ukraine does not agree to a bargain with Russia. This revelation raises questions about the potential implications of foreign influence on Ukraine’s sovereignty as the war continues to devastate the region.
At the same time, fighting has escalated even more as Russia has hit back with a wave of drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The most important of these accidents was at the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in the Samara region near Orenburg. The attack caused a massive fire and destruction of the refinery’s primary processing units.
Ukraine’s general staff announced that a “large-scale fire” had occurred at the plant, a key facility for Russia’s oil production. According to Russian regional governor Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes caused a fire in a workshop at the facility. This terrible event resulted in millions of dollars worth of damage.
Ukrainian forces hit military supply depots in Russia’s Belgorod region. These attacks have already led to the tragic deaths of two people and injured one more. This represents another example of the unending violence finding its way across borders as violence seems to be increasing ever faster.
Ukrainian drone operations have targeted the Orenburg gas processing plant, one of the largest of its kind globally, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. The strike preemptively obliged the facility to stop accepting their Kazakh gas, making a bad situation even worse for Russia’s gas supply chain.
Just recently, reports confirmed that a sanctioned tanker operating within the “shadow fleet” was preparing to deliver Russian liquefied natural gas. The original operation was occurring in waters off the coast of Malaysia. This particular tanker is said to have loaded its cargo at the Portovaya plant in Russia. Gazprom jointly operates this facility, which is also located on the Kazakh border.
With the ongoing war, Russians for days have quickly and ferociously struck Ukrainian locations. Most recently, they attacked a coalmine in Dnipropetrovsk and an energy facility in Chernihiv. According to energy firm DTEK, all 192 coal miners were evacuated safely, with no reported injuries. Chernihivoblenergo, the regional energy company, said in a telegram that the attack damaged “incredibly” extensive power supply facilities. As a consequence, over 55,000 customers were without power.
The war has led to an increase in the number of shadow fleet vessels using false flags. The European External Action Service (EEAS) has long recognized this troubling trend. This new development highlights the confusing dynamics around energy supplies as each country continues to deal with the consequences of the war.