Ukraine adapts strikes on Russian energy industry to hit critical components

{"text":[[{"start":8.04,"text":"Ukraine has shifted its long-range drone campaign against Russia’s energy industry from broad attacks on refineries to more targeted strikes on critical components that are hard to replace."}],[{"start":18.48,"text":"Ukrainian military planners, drone operators and energy specialists say Kyiv’s goal is no longer simply to start fires at refineries or destroy storage tanks, but to keep plants offline for longer and make each strike more costly for Moscow."}],[{"start":33.9,"text":"One Ukrainian deep-strike unit member told the FT that the strategy was meticulously “targeted and co-ordinated”."}],[{"start":40.72,"text":"President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last weekend that he had instructed Ukraine’s newly appointed commander-in-chief and acting defence minister to expand the country’s deep-strike campaign."}],[{"start":50.88,"text":"Yevhenii Khmara, the incoming defence minister, said he had worked with the new top commander Mykhailo Drapatyi on plans to “move the war on to the aggressor’s territory as much as possible”."}],[{"start":61.48,"text":"“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, specifically noting Ukraine’s deep-strike attacks."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":75,"text":"Two deep-strike drone operators said target selection is guided by detailed technical analysis by officials. They take into account logistics, flight paths and broader operational priorities."}],[{"start":85.8,"text":"Before missions, they said, drone units receive briefings from energy engineers and industry experts on which components are indispensable to refinery operations and which would take the longest to replace."}],[{"start":96.6,"text":"The engineers and experts tell drone units to strike “these pipelines here, or this chimney, hit here in this space, or this part of the equipment connection, or this box, and so on”, one drone operator said."}],[{"start":109.14,"text":"He added that some operations still involve attacks on large oil depots, where munitions with fragmentation elements are used."}],[{"start":116.32,"text":"Russia and Ukraine inherited similar Soviet-designed energy systems, giving Ukrainian engineers a detailed understanding of many of the industrial processes, equipment layouts and operational vulnerabilities inside Russian facilities."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":116.82,"text":"Part two, coming soon:"}],[{"start":117.32,"text":"How Putin’s refinery dream became Ukraine’s target"}],[{"start":134.84,"text":"“Sadly we learn from Russians,” said Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former defence minister and chair of the Centre for Defence Strategies, a Kyiv-based security think-tank."}],[{"start":145,"text":"“They are doing exactly the same to us here,” he added, referring to Russia’s missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian energy, military and civilian infrastructure."}],[{"start":156.2,"text":"Missions are planned with multiple objectives and contingency options. If operators cannot reach the primary target because of air defences or navigation problems, they are instructed to divert to pre-selected secondary or tertiary targets rather than abandon the strike."}],[{"start":172.72,"text":"Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said refinery attacks form part of a broader campaign to dismantle the networks that sustain Russia’s war effort — from oil exports that finance the military to logistics routes supplying troops at the front."}],[{"start":189.12,"text":"“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."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":202.08,"text":"The strategy reflects what military planners describe as “systemic warfare” — treating Russia’s energy infrastructure as an interconnected network rather than a collection of individual targets."}],[{"start":212.84,"text":"“We think of Russia as a system,” said Zagorodnyuk. “Understanding that system allows you to identify the critical parts where the effect is much more substantial.”"}],[{"start":222.42,"text":"By mapping dependencies across refineries, substations and transmission systems, Ukrainian planners identify nodes where a relatively small warhead can cause disruption far beyond the initial blast."}],[{"start":234.6,"text":"Ukrainian drone units have also begun repeatedly striking the same critical equipment before repairs are complete, preventing facilities from resuming operations, according to drone operatives and an FT analysis of satellite images."}],[{"start":248.24,"text":"Ukrainian officials said intelligence provided by the US and France had helped map Russian air-defence deployments and identify routes that allowed drones to evade them and reach targets deep inside Russia."}],[{"start":259.4,"text":"Brovdi said the campaign also depended on the “systematic elimination” of Russian air-defence, radar and electronic warfare systems to open corridors for drones deep inside Russia."}],[{"start":270.12,"text":"From there, he said, targeting became “a matter of pure mathematics”: production volumes, domestic consumption, export flows and shipment points."}],[{"start":278.32,"text":"He added that Russia’s European territory, as well as occupied areas of Ukraine, were now within range. “Eighty million people — roughly two-thirds of Russia’s population — live in the European part of the country, within the strike zone, which is no longer and will no longer be considered Russia’s safe rear area,” he said."}],[{"start":297.24,"text":"US and French intelligence had also improved target selection, officials said, helping Ukraine’s deep-strike drone teams “learn where to hit”, according to Zagorodnyuk."}],[{"start":307.18,"text":"He said Ukrainian planners had built a detailed map of Russia’s energy grid, allowing them to identify critical nodes where disruption can shut down larger parts of the system and target equipment that is hardest to replace."}],[{"start":318.8,"text":"The rising tempo of attacks has increased the pressure on Russia’s systems. “We hit critical nodes over and over again before or shortly after they have been rebuilt,” Zagorodnyuk said. “Previously, it was a big problem. We were hitting something and it was later rebuilt.”"}],[{"start":334.36,"text":"Brovdi said his drone forces did not plan to ease up: “The escalation of strikes, up to the complete destruction of the enemy’s fuel and energy sector and military-industrial complex, is inevitable.”"}],[{"start":350.36,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785311538_4735.mp3"}