16 May 2026

2026-05-15 | UPDATES #203 | Ukraine’s refinery campaign has wiped $7 billion off Putin’s war chest in 2026 alone. Tamanneftegaz on the black sea, Yaroslavl on the Volga, astrakhan on the Caspian — and Putin’s oil-funded war machine burning at both ends.

It is the night of Tuesday 12 May into Wednesday 13 May 2026. While Russia was loading 1,600 drones and missiles into forward launch positions for the largest aerial assault of the entire war — the strike that we covered yesterday, the strike that began 36 hours later and killed 15 Ukrainians across six districts of Kyiv — Ukraine was conducting its own operation. Simultaneously. In the opposite direction.