Pentagon: Ukraine’s strikes disabled 14% of Russia’s oil refining capacity
This was reported by the Pentagon's Intelligence Directorate, Censor.NET reports citing European Pravda.
The loss of part of Russia's oil refining capacity led to a 20%-30% increase in domestic prices by mid-March and provoked a halt in exports to focus on meeting domestic demand, according to an assessment by the US Department of Defence's Intelligence Directorate, which was summarised in a report by Inspector General Robert Storch, who oversees assistance to Ukraine.
‘To mitigate the impact of these strikes, Russia banned petrol exports for six months starting in March and began importing petroleum products from Belarus that it had planned to import from Kazakhstan, and prioritised shipments of petroleum products by Russian railways over other modes of transport,’ the report said.
Although Ukraine's attacks on refineries in Russia are aimed at depleting fuel supplies and export revenues for Putin's armed forces, the US has criticised them as posing a risk to global oil prices.
The published analysis covers only a two-month period, from the first attack on 21 January on the Novatek plant in Ust-Luga to the 24 March attack on the Novocherkassk power plant.
At the same time, the attacks on energy facilities ‘resulted in minor disruptions in the power supply to the Russian military and civilian population’ because ‘Russia has a strong generating capacity - the third largest in the world - and a high degree of redundancy in its grid,’ the assessment says.