“We will put the puzzle together”: an expert explained our strategy for destroying Russia’s oil industry

Political expert and serviceman Oleksandr Musiienko stated that Ukraine’s strategy is not only to strike Russian ports, disrupting oil shipments, but to break supply chains as a whole, Politeka reports.

He spoke about this on his blog.

“First, there are oil extraction sites. They can also be targeted, but they are far away, and reaching them requires something very heavy to cause significant damage. However, if we can’t reach them, we can hit the next element—oil pumping stations, refineries, and petrochemical enterprises that produce aviation fuel and supply diesel both to the military and for civilian needs,” explains Oleksandr Musiienko.

Moreover, the expert notes that in Russia they are already talking about problems with the sowing campaign and a diesel shortage, since priority is given to the needs of the military rather than civilian consumption. The third element of this strategy, he says, is terminals and ports, such as Tuapse, where the consequences of strikes are already visible from space.

The final element, the expert emphasizes, is Russia’s shadow fleet. On April 29, the sanctioned tanker MARQUISE was struck near Tuapse in the Black Sea under the flag of Cameroon while waiting to be loaded with oil. According to him, this is important: it is necessary to make normal operations of Russia’s shadow fleet impossible, at least in the Black Sea, and reduce these capabilities for the enemy.

“When we put the puzzle together, what will be the result? The result will be creating serious problems—making normal exports of oil and petroleum products impossible, creating maximum obstacles so that the enemy cannot meet the needs of its own military, even to the point of a shortage of petroleum products,” Oleksandr Musiienko concludes.