Ukraine has changed its long-range drone campaign against Russia’s energy sector, shifting from broad attacks on oil refineries to precision strikes on critical industrial components that are difficult to replace, according to Ukrainian military personnel, officials and energy specialists.
The new approach aims to keep facilities offline for longer and increase the cost of repairs, rather than simply causing fires or damaging fuel storage tanks, Financial Times reports.
One member of a Ukrainian deep-strike unit described the strategy as meticulously “targeted and co-ordinated”.
The shift follows President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's instruction to Ukraine's newly appointed commander-in-chief and acting defence minister to expand the country's long-range strike campaign.
Incoming Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said he had worked with the new commander, Mykhailo Drapatyi, on plans to “move the war on to the aggressor’s territory as much as possible”.
“Ukraine will continue to exert shock and technological pressure on Russia by all means,” Khmara said. “We must scale up what is already effective,” he added, referring to Ukraine’s deep-strike operations.
According to Ukrainian drone operators, targets are selected following technical assessments by military officials, engineers and industry experts, who identify refinery components whose destruction would have the greatest operational impact.
Ukraine's planners are also drawing on their knowledge of Soviet-era energy infrastructure shared by both countries.
“Sadly we learn from Russians,” said Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine's former defence minister and chair of the Centre for Defence Strategies. “They are doing exactly the same to us here,” he added, referring to Russian strikes on Ukraine's infrastructure.
Military planners say the campaign is based on "systemic warfare", treating Russia's energy sector as an interconnected network.
“We think of Russia as a system,” Zagorodnyuk said. “Understanding that system allows you to identify the critical parts where the effect is much more substantial.”
Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, said the attacks are intended to weaken Russia's ability to finance and sustain its military campaign.
“The objective is clear: 1) to destroy the sources that finance Putin’s war [oil trade] and 2) [to destroy] the military-industrial complex that supplies the occupying army with weapons,” he said.
Ukrainian officials said intelligence provided by the United States and France had helped identify Russian air-defence positions and improve target selection.
Brovdi said the campaign also depended on the “systematic elimination” of Russian air-defence, radar and electronic warfare systems.
According to Zagorodnyuk, Ukrainian planners have mapped Russia's energy network to identify infrastructure whose disruption would have the greatest impact.
“We hit critical nodes over and over again before or shortly after they have been rebuilt,” he said. “Previously, it was a big problem. We were hitting something and it was later rebuilt.”
Brovdi said Ukraine would continue to intensify the campaign.
“The escalation of strikes, up to the complete destruction of the enemy’s fuel and energy sector and military-industrial complex, is inevitable.”
By Aghakazim Guliyev
