Ukrainian military intelligence is recording a significant reduction in certain components of Russian exports – according to internal Russian documents, the figure has fallen by 80% this month alone.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this in a post devoted to a report by the head of the DIU of the Ministry of Defence, Oleh Ivashchenko.
According to the President, the drop in exports means substantial losses for Russia’s federal budget, as well as for regional budgets which, Zelenskyy noted, are already on the brink of bankruptcy.
Separately, intelligence is recording problems with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“The Russian side admits that the ships of its Black Sea Fleet are effectively blocked in Novorossiysk thanks to our drone strikes and are unable to operate at sea. The Russian leadership cannot find a way out of this situation,” the President noted.
Because the fleet is unable to provide convoy protection for commercial and so-called shadow vessels, Russia is considering arming them. This includes, in particular, installing small arms and electronic warfare systems, as well as placing military personnel on civilian ships.
Russia Plans to Scale Up Ballistic Weapons Production
According to the DIU, Ukraine’s long-range strikes are also damaging Russian military production and the oil sector.
In particular, after a series of strikes on the “Kamensky Combine” plant in Rostov Region, Russia, according to Ukrainian intelligence, lost a significant share of its capacity to produce solid-fuel rocket engines.
In addition, the DIU reports the shutdown of one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod Region. According to Zelenskyy, the facility processed 17 million tonnes of oil each year. Intelligence also has data on the shutdown of other Russian oil-refining facilities.
Ukraine has also received updated data on Russia’s production of ballistic missiles and Moscow’s plans to expand it. Zelenskyy stressed that to deter this programme it is necessary to block supplies to Russia of foreign components, equipment and machine tools used in missile production.
“Without foreign components, the Russians are unable to implement any of the points of their missile programme,” the President noted.