Malazan Empire: Werthead - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

The Moscow Oil Refinery is offline until 2027. The damage is so severe they can barely start repairing the damage in the next couple of months, and it won't be back online until at least early 2027.

Russia has apparently asked Kazakhstan to start supplying oil to make up for the shortfalls in the system.

Fuel prices in the Rostov region adjoining Ukraine are reaching their highest-ever prices, and some gas stations are out of fuel.

A Russian in Israel saw a Ukrainian flag, tore it down, was stopped and the flag was restored to its prior position. The Russian man responded with a burst of antisemitic invective - in Israel - and stormed off.

Ukrainian intelligence and communications are really ramping-up the psy-ops about a Ukrainian attack on Crimea. Budanov has said that Crimea's return to Ukraine is "inevitable."

Ukraine has issued a preliminary report that at least some of the drone signal repeaters along the border with Belarus have been dismantled, and others may have been deactivated. Ukraine is monitoring the situation to see if they still need to take kinetic action.

Three years ago today, the Russian Wagner Group was death-screaming up the Rostov-Moscow highway, blowing Russian helicopters out of the sky and being bombed in turn by Russian aircraft, whilst roughly half the Russian military put Putin on "nu fone who dis?"

Crazy times.

Putin has indicated he would be prepared for peace talks on the basis of the Istanbul talks of early 2022. Which is interesting. The terms would still be unacceptable to Ukraine, but they would roll back on full Russian claims to all of the four oblasts. Unlikely to go anywhere though.

Ukrainian drone strikes on Crimea are becoming ridiculous, they've hit all the crossing points again, and have started hitting subterranean fuel storage depots which the Russians thought were safe and undetected. Some Russian civilians have started leaving Crimea. There are wild rumours about a Ukrainian naval assault (with what navy, is unclear) being imminent.

Ukraine has pummelled all of the bridges linking Crimea to Ukraine on the mainland side, and hit the Kerch Ferry Terminal on the bridge side (the bridge itself is being left alone, possibly as a retreat route). They're also stepping up hits on fuel trucks and oil infrastructure across the peninsula, including destroying the Kerch Fuel Terminal. The major Russian fuel depot outside the town of Bakhchysarai, Crimea has also been destroyed.

This morning the governor of Crimea ordered a halt to all fuel sales for anything other than military purposes.

A massive hit on a semiconductor plant in Voronezh. It appears this might be the first use of the F-16-launched AGM-188A "Rusty Dagger" missile, received from the United States.

Rolling electricity cuts in Crimea. The situation there seems to be deteriorating rapidly.

Zelensky has given Lukashenko one week to remove the repeaters located along the Ukraine-Belarusian border, and suggested that Ukraine can remove them if he does not do so. He also suggested that Belarus supplying Russia with oil from Belarus's very small number of refineries was a choice, that Lukashenko can choose to stop. With the presumed implication Ukraine can stop it if necessary.

Ukraine has hit Moscow with its largest drone strike of the war. According to some sources, almost a thousand Ukrainian drones penetrated Russian airspace and over two hundred hit targets in the Moscow region, including at least seven direct hits on the Moscow Oil Refinery. The Moscow Oil Refinery's key crude distillation units were both destroyed, shutting down its primary oil processing capacity. Unclear when or if they can be replaced. "Oil rain" has fallen across Moscow following the attack, and 527 flights to Moscow have been cancelled or delayed. Footage also confirms that multiple Ukrainian cruise missiles were used in the attack on Moscow.

Multiple shots showing Russian air defence missiles going off-course awry, as well as one Russian soldier firing a MANPADS on a bridge packed full of civilians, who promptly panicked. The photo of the day, showing the entire cover of one fuel tank being blown hundreds of feet into the air, was caused by an AD missile misfiring and hitting the installation it was defending.

Some signs that people are hoarding fuel in Moscow, resulting in multiple petrol stations running dry.

Ukraine also carried out a series of drone attacks on pontoon and permanent bridges across the North Crimean Canal.

Russia has started importing oil by sea because it can no longer produce enough to cover its own needs. For one of the world's biggest oil exporters, that is ridiculous.

Ukraine has intensified a counter-offensive operation. Heavy fighting is ongoing in Zarichna and Novoselivka, whilst Ukrainian forces apparently broke through the Russian lines along the Nitrius River, recaptured Karpivka and pushed on towards Lypove.