March 9, 2025
A Ukrainian drone attacked an oil depot in Cheboksary in Russia’s Chuvashia Republic on the morning of March 9, Governor Oleg Nikolaev reported.
Russian Telegram channels claimed that this is the first drone attack on Chuvashia since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
The Burevestnik oil depot lies over 900 kilometers (559 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Nikolaev said that the oil depot was under reconstruction. No casualties were reported.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, overnight, Russian air defense shot down 52 drones over Belgorod Oblast, 13 over Lipetsk Oblast, nine over Rostov Oblast, eight over Voronezh Oblast, three over Astrakhan Oblast, one over Ryazan Oblast, one over Kursk Oblast and one over Krashodar Krai.
The Russian Telegram channel Astra reported that Ukrainian drones also targeted oil refineries in Lipetsk and Ryazan oblasts.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims. The Ukrainian military has not commented on Russian reports.
Ukraine considers Russian oil facilities to be valid military targets, as fossil fuel profits supply Moscow’s war machine. The Ukrainian military has launched repeated attacks against Russian refineries with long-range drones since 2022.
“Nikolaev said that the oil depot was under reconstruction.”
Now it’s under reconstruction Ukrainian style.
Those darn debris!
I see the Trump plan of “drill, baby, drill” was actually a plan to ask Saudi Arabia to cut the price of oil. The Saudis gave Trump the middle finger. The US oil execs said they are not going to go into bankruptcy for the sake of Trump.
The Saudis had already planned on increasing their oil production back in September (well before the elections in November). So, I’m not sure if Trump wanted them to increase it even more or if he wasn’t aware that they already had a production increase planned.
Guessing Trump’s cleverness scale level, he wasn’t aware of it.
Another long-range strike into mafia land, and even a target never before hit. Remember, Ukraine has no access to American intel info.
Also the rotten bastard has remotely disabled HIMARS guidance systems.
The defenders; with difficulty no doubt, will find a workaround.
But no new missiles will come.
Can anyone manufacture an analogue, or will Ukraine lose that critical system completely?
PULS, GMLRS, and SAGE 227 are possible missile alternatives. SAGE 227 comes out of Turkiye.
Check this out, scradge:
https://en.defence-ua.com/industries/germany_may_have_its_own_analogue_of_himars_the_new_gmars_mlrs_in_two_years-7123.html
I think that work on this system will be accelerated, seeing how the current situation has changed dramatically to when the article was published.