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Russia takes five days to put out fire at 'industrial plant' hit by Ukrainian drone

In terms of Ukraine’s strikes on Russian territory, January 2025 was the month that the gloves finally came off. With Ukraine’s homegrown defense sector now rivaling any western nation and seemingly no US, German or French politician willing to risk uttering the long-standard and nonsensical call for “de-escalation”, Russia’s most important cash-generating assets are now vanishing at an almost daily rate.

A summary of Ukraine’s January strikes on Russian territory paint the picture of efforts primarily focused on Russia’s vast, nationwide petroleum industry, the very heart of the economy and it’s war machine.

▪️ On January 4, drones covered a distance of over 900 kilometers, successfully striking Russia’s largest seaport, Ust-Luga, in the Leningrad region.

▪️ On January 8, drones traveled approximately 1,000 kilometers to hit an oil depot in Engels, a key fuel supplier for a military airfield.

▪️ On January 10, several areas of Russia’s Rostov region fell victim to a combination of missiles and drones targeting a plant for the production of propellant for ballistic missiles as well as weapons warehouses and a military training base.

▪️ On January 11, multiple locations, including Russian-occupied Crimea and several Russian cities, came under attack. A fire erupted in the port area of Novorossiysk, located 500 kilometers from the border.

▪️ On January 14, drones struck an oil depot in Engels, the Orgsintez plant in Kazan, the Saratov Oil Refinery, and the Bryansk Chemical Plant.

▪️ On January 15, an oil depot in the Voronezh region, about 200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, caught fire.

▪️ On January 16, drones traveled more than 400 kilometers to reach the Tambov Gunpowder Plant.

▪️ On January 17, another drone strike targeted the Engels oil depot, where Russian authorities had just extinguished a six-day fire. This marked the third attack in two weeks.

▪️ On January 18, drones hit oil depots in Russia’s Tula and Kaluga regions.

▪️ On January 20, drones targeted aircraft manufacturing facilities in Kazan, 1,000 kilometers from the border, while also revisiting a familiar oil depot in the Voronezh region.

▪️ On January 21, drone strikes reached military-industrial sites in Smolensk, located 300 kilometers from the border.

▪️ On January 24, drones conducted successful strikes in Ryazan and Bryansk—over 500 and 110 kilometers from the border, respectively. In Ryazan, an oil refinery was illuminated by explosions, while in Bryansk, the Kremniy El plant was also hit.

▪️ On January 26, UAVs once again struck the Ryazan Oil Refinery, more than 500 kilometers from the border.

▪️ On January 29, drones successfully hit one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, located in Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, approximately 800 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

The Russian military blogosphere is now rife with panicked comments, citing the embarrassingly incompetent lack of air defenses, lamenting the almost nightly losses of key oil refineries, such as the Ryazan Refinery that was completely taken out of commission in only two nights of strikes earlier this week, the third largest refinery in the country. Last night the fourth largest refinery, in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod was also targeted. These two refineries alone represent over 11% of Russia’s total refining capacity, producing the diesel, jet fuel, gasoline and variety of petroleum derivatives that make an economy go.

In whats becoming an integral part of the morning coffee experience for millions of Ukrainians, the videos of exploding multi-million dollar Russian oil storage, transport and refinery capacity that fill the news feeds are giving hope, while the Ukrainian government assures that things are only getting started.

Oil pumping through the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga has been suspended. This happened after an attack on the Andreapol oil pumping station, Bloomberg informs.

"It would present a significant new supply threat for the global oil market if it were to be confirmed that Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged the pipeline system feeding Ust-Luga, halting oil shipments from the port for a prolonged period," the media outlet writes.

According to journalists, flows to Ust-Luga dropped to zero on January 29. Shipping data obtained by Bloomberg indicates that the last tanker departed on Wednesday morning, although there is a gap in the vessel's signals after that.

...
According to data collected by Bloomberg, the port of Ust-Luga processed about 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day last year, accounting for approximately 20% of Russia's total seaborne oil flow. It is considered the second largest port after Novorossiysk.

Zelensky Says $100 Billion in US Aid is Missing

Now that Trump is in office and the charade is over, Zelensky admits he did not receive over $100 billion of our tax dollars.

He says he “does not know where all the money is”.

Meaning Ukraine was a massive money laundering operation, and the Biden regime never actually cared about defending Ukraine or preserving democracy. All of the pro-Ukraine propaganda was a psyop to garner American support, so the People would willingly send our tax dollars to “defend democracy”, and it worked on millions.

All of it was a lie, just so Western oligarchs could use Ukraine as a laundry mat. They sacrificed the lives of millions of soldiers, because of their greed. They stole our money from our labor, then used it to start and fund a war on the other side of the globe, and then lied about it. They bankrupt the American People, and stuffed their pockets, while millions suffered.

It was all a scam. Many of us said this from the beginning and we were labeled as “Russian assets”.

One of the world largest plants of this kind, processing up to 12 billions cubic meters of gas annually (not anymore).

Ukraine Reselling ‘Half’ of U.S-Supplied Weapons to America’s Enemies

... The shocking allegations were made during the latest episode of Tucker Carlson’s show.

Carlson was interviewing Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a retired United States Army officer who was awarded a Bronze Star for valor in Afghanistan.

The two discussed the U.S. aid that has been sent to Ukraine and revealed that “half” of the weapons are now in the hands of Mexican drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

Carlson asserted that the information they revealed is “fact” and “not speculation.”

The black market arms trade in Ukraine during the war has long been documented, including in mainstream media sources.

Trump is ending the Proxy War, and fast. He’s mainly doing it by cutting out the slow-walking, warmongering Europeans. I’ll show you in a post featuring four headlines and a Truth. Here is the first headline, from Reuters this morning:

US Treasury's Bessent says Americans will see value in Ukraine for them
By Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward

We are peering through a fog of diplomatic war, so we don’t know exactly what’s going on. But new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went to Ukraine Wednesday to deliver a “proposal” for continued U.S. support in Ukraine. Sources suggest that Trump wants payment for all our previous and future support, to the tune of $500 billion dollars, which would be secured by mineral rights in mineral-rich Ukraine.

Many commenters also think the proposal includes an audit of the money already provided. Wouldn’t that be spicy. Even the suggestion of an audit would probably send Zelensky racing to his panic room.

Remember when everybody was upset because Trump and Speaker Johnson acquiesced to the last big Ukraine funding round? Trump already had an idea of how to get our money back. Zelensky is riding the horns of a big dilemma. If Ukraine refuses to agree to pay us back, then Trump has everything he needs to refuse to provide any more aid. It’s only fair they should pay us back.

That’s how Trump plans to solve problem number one: Zelensky and the Ukrainians.

Europe is problem number two, and it is fitting that two headlines apply this morning to our EU “allies.” The next headline ran in yesterday’s Associated Press:

NATO is in disarray after the US
announces that its security priorities
lie elsewhere

Disarray! Just like the Democrats! The short version is, newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth traveled to Munich’s annual Security Conference this week and told our European NATO partners two world-changing things: first, they should get ready to defend themselves a lot more, since the U.S. plans to draw troops out of Western Europe for redeployment in Asia.

He explained that Europe must “take ownership of conventional security on the continent.” The U.S. will still provide nuclear deterrence for Europe.

Next, Hegseth curtly informed the Old World that President Trump will handle the negotiations with Putin and Zelensky, not them. In other words, Hegseth manifested NATO’s worst fears, a prospect even more terrifying than French President Macron unexpectedly arriving for an unannounced weekend visit.

Regarding the Proxy War, SecDef Hegseth delivered even more bad news. We don’t agree with any of your dumb Proxy War ideas.




In short, Hegseth eviscerated all of Zelensky’s insane peace-plan demands, which of course were unthinkingly embraced by Europe’s NATO partners. First, the Secretary told them in no uncertain terms that Ukraine will never join NATO. Conversation over. Likewise, he told them no U.S. troops would ever be deployed to Ukraine as peacekeepers. If the EU wants peacekeepers in Ukraine, they must do it themselves, outside of NATO, and pay for it all on their own.

NATO membership was a deliberate obstacle to any peace agreement with Russia. But it was worse than that. Biden’s relentless brinksmanship about Ukraine’s NATO membership brought us to the precipice of nuclear apocalypse.

Finally, as if all that weren’t enough bad news, and as if the Europeans weren’t already grappling with a financial existential crisis in the form of Trump’s reciprocal tarrifs plan, CNN ran more bad news in the form of a story concluding that U.S. relations with Europe will never be the same — after one single phone call:

US relations with Europe will never be the
same after Trump's call with Putin

CNN began its article generously describing Wednesday’s momentous events as “two geopolitical thunderclaps.”

If there was one mindless, diplomacy-destroying mantra, endlessly repeated, that by itself explains the pitiful failure to end the Ukraine war much earlier, it was this stupid slogan: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. What that meant was, nobody talks to Putin by themselves. As a result, Joe Biden only spoke to Russian President Putin exactly zero times in almost four years.

It wasn’t just President Cabbage. We didn’t even send a negotiating team to Russia. Yet the whole time, the Russians were practically begging us to negotiate.

So yesterday, Trump shattered all the nebulous anti-negotiating rules by picking up the telephone by himself and talking to his counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the Russian readout, they spoke for ninety minutes. You can imagine how, after almost four years of silence, they had a lot to discuss.

The best description of how furious the sidelined Europeans were is right in the headline: the relationship will never be the same. It was a betrayal of trust! Trump cheated on us!

They’re not breaking up with us, not yet, but we’d better plan for a polar vortex of a Valentine’s Day. The romance is over.

Because a successful resolution of the Proxy War crisis affects us all, I decided to reprint the whole report from President Trump that he posted to Truth Social about his call with Putin:




Later Trump also called Zelensky. According to reports, the U.S. President spoke to Ukraine’s Martial Law Administrator for ten minutes.

So.

You’ll note that, in his post, Trump announced Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will now lead the negotiations. Witkoff is on a mediating roll, having just negotiated the Israel-Hamas cease-fire, which the Biden Administration attempted for two years but utterly failed.

Could you imagine? Imagine how wonderful it would be if Trump settled the Proxy War conflict, stopped the dying on both sides, and at the same time got all our money back?

It seems appropriate to close this massive post with a quote often attributed to Lenin (although nobody knows for sure): There are decades when nothing happens, and then there are weeks when decades happen.

We are living through weeks trying to keep up while decades of winning unfold. From time to time, take a moment to gratefully reflect on how dire and irresolvable it all seemed for so long. Then last year, we bravely began to hope. But now, we’ve moved way beyond hope. This is something vastly bigger than hope. This is the ride of our lives.

If Ukraine refuses to agree to pay us back,

This is why Macron is panicking:

Two things happened yesterday. First, the American and Russian negotiating teams met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and agreed to general terms of a three-part plan. Second, Trump said stuff that wasn’t nice about Ukraine’s Martial Law Administrator and Venmo Glutton Volodymyr Zelensky.

Well, technically, three things happened. Also, Zelensky flew to Riyadh and tried to crash the meeting. I am not making that up. The Saudis politely invited him to return later. But that was just an awkward sideshow. ...

Speaking from Riyadh, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained late yesterday that the negotiating teams had already nailed down the outlines of a three-part plan. First, the U.S. and Russia will re-establish diplomatic relations obliterated by the Biden Administration. For example, the mothballed Russian embassy in DC can re-open for normal diplomatic business.

Second, the US and Russia will explore brand new geopolitical and business opportunities together. Meaning, no more sanctions. And beyond that, it likely means new joint ventures, probably related to energy.

And third —last and least— they will discuss a structure to end the war in Ukraine. ...

“I hear that the Ukrainians are upset about not having a seat,” President Trump said. “Well, they’ve had a seat for three years. And a long time before that. This could have been settled very easily. Just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without, I think, the loss of much land, or very little land. Without the loss of any lives. And without the loss of cities that are now just laying on their sides.”

Trump —who himself just won the popular vote— also dismissed Zelensky’s approval rating as flatlining “around 4%,” He also seemed to endorse the Russian argument that Ukraine needs to have democratic elections. It was another weird turnaround; the corporate media are forced to defend not having elections and the dictator Putin is insisting that Ukrainians be allowed to vote.

Zelensky, of course, opposes holding elections in Ukraine.

Then Trump asked the reporters, “Where is all the money?” That question did not bode well for the Ukrainians.

Speaking from Riyadh, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained late yesterday that the negotiating teams had already nailed down the outlines of a three-part plan. First, the U.S. and Russia will re-establish diplomatic relations obliterated by the Biden Administration. For example, the mothballed Russian embassy in DC can re-open for normal diplomatic business.

Second, the US and Russia will explore brand new geopolitical and business opportunities together. Meaning, no more sanctions. And beyond that, it likely means new joint ventures, probably related to energy.

And third —last and least— they will discuss a structure to end the war in Ukraine. ...