On the night of Monday, Ukrainian drones hit the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian oil pipeline in Yuzhna Ozerejevka, where one filling station on the main pier of Transneft and four tanks were destroyed. The nearby Šescharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk was also hit, where the frigate Admiral Makarov was the target, the Censor website reported.
According to Reuters, the attacks near Novorossiysk caused the most serious damage to the Russian Black Sea oil export facilities. The one in the Baltic Sea was also damaged by previous attacks. It took nine days before, after the attack on the night of March 25, the Jewel tanker started loading oil in Ust-Luza on March 4.
Analytical company Argus stated that exports from this port fell by 70 percent. A source of the paid newspaper Financial Times stated that oil worth 200 million dollars (4.23 billion crowns) burned during the attack on Primorsk on the same day.
Russia cannot produce enough surface-to-air missiles
Russian air defense was unable to prevent the attacks. With the increasing number of Ukrainian attacks, when several hundred drones are flying at Russia, the weaknesses of Russian air defense are showing. The entire territory, even the entire borders of Russia, cannot be protected due to its huge area.
This follows from the statement of the Russian Telegram channel Rybar, which focuses on military issues.
“The latest Ukrainian airstrike again raises the question of the feasibility of strengthening Russian air defenses. Relying on miracle electronic warfare systems or the enemy running out of resources is not the best method. According to our information, Ukrainian forces are planning a long campaign of penetration through air defenses over Russian territory until the summer of 2026, and because of this, they have been accumulating resources for this throughout the fall and winter, so the attacks will continue for a long time.”
The Russians are not able to react to this, the Pancir S1 air defense system is running out of missiles, Rybar, who is connected to the Kremlin, admitted indirectly: “It is physically impossible to simply conjure tens of thousands of missiles into Pancir out of nothing.”
He criticized the media: “The most common solution in the Russian media is to increase the supply of surface-to-air guided missiles for air defense systems and the Russian armed forces. But for some reason, no one tries to understand how difficult it is to increase the production of such weapons.”
It’s not a shame
Rybar therefore recommends that the Russian command learn from the Ukrainians and copy their experience. It deployed more fighter drones and created more mobile firing groups that can move according to the routes used by Ukrainian drones. “There is no shame in using the experience of the enemy,” he writes, ignoring the fact that Russia is much larger.
