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Ukraine began its war on Russia’s oil industry in the early days of the war.

But its campaign of drone strikes on refineries, storage tanks, oil sea transport terminals and other infrastructure did not widen into a systemic assault on this vital sector of Russia’s economy until late 2024 and on into 2025.

Putin New Year’s Message. Image Credit: Russian Government.

As an essay from the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) described last month, Ukraine struck “Russia’s Central Nervous System.

The UK has committed to handing over blueprints for the UK-France-designed Storm Shadow/Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée – Emploi Général (SCALP EG) cruise missiles to Ukraine.

This will allow Kyiv to manufacture its own missiles, which it has been launching not only from the Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters donated by France, but also from the Ukrainian Air Force’s (PSU) pre-war fleet of Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-24 fighter-bombers.

Su-35. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Su-35 Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

As Ukraine celebrates its 35th year since being restored to independent status, leaders and representatives of the Coalition of the Willing met in person and via video conference in the capital, Kyiv.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz chaired the meeting alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

T-72 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

T-72 Like Those Fighting in Ukraine.

The gathering also took place one day after Ukraine had commemorated the 23 August National Flag Day.

Everett Bartlett will never forget the huge cloud of smoke.
Bartlett was only 10 years old on April 21, 1958, when he saw the disturbing image off in the distance, a few miles from his school in Henderson, Nevada. The boy was outside at the time and didn’t know what to make of the smoke. He just knew it was bad.
“It looked like a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb,” Bartlett recalled to KSNV, Las Vegas’ NBC television affiliate, in 2025.

Ukraine has carried out some devastating attacks on Russian infrastructure in recent weeks, using drones and other weapons to strike at Russia’s energy facilities, as well as at warehouses owned by Wildberries, the “Amazon of Russia,” and other locations. Many of those strikes have been deadly, including the deaths of civilians.

Does this represent a change in Ukraine’s posture when it comes to civilian casualties? Politico’s European arm looked at that question this week.

NextGenDef.

Ceder & Oliverio, Navy T.
Vague operational planning and a lack of transparency during U.S.

Global Defense News
The U.S.

BrDefense
The Navy said that the missile is designed for 4th, 5th, and 6th generation aircraft platforms.

AWeek
During the Ford’s deployment, the ship’s air wing conducted a sortie generation rate test to evaluate how EMALS