Zelenskyy establishes 'long-range impact' command to strike Russian energy sector
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree creating a new military command focused on long-range strikes against Russia's energy infrastructure, aiming to further reduce Moscow's capacity to wage war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a Friday night address that he had signed a decree establishing a special command within Ukraine's armed forces, tasked with 'long-range and, in effect, global impact on Russia in response to this war.' The new command must concentrate 100% of available resources on further diminishing Russia's ability to wage war.
The announcement came as Ukraine struck the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region, one of the largest in the south, and the Ust-Luga oil refining complex in the Leningrad region, according to Ukraine's general staff. An oil terminal and depot in the Rostov region were also hit. Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's drone forces and a key architect of the long-range campaign, said the attacks have also damaged Russia's 'shadow fleet,' with nearly 50 fuel vessels hit in the past five days, including 10 tankers in the Sea of Azov.
Russia has temporarily suspended shipping through the Don-Azov Channel, a waterway linking the Don River to the Sea of Azov, after Ukraine attacked Russian vessels in the sea, three grain export industry sources told Reuters on Friday. Up to one-quarter of Russia's wheat exports are estimated to pass through this inland sea. Russia's border guards notified shipping companies that requests for passage through the Kerch Strait would not be accepted from 6:10 pm local time on Friday, without saying when the halt would end.
US Senator Lindsey Graham, who met Zelenskyy in Kyiv, said China could play a decisive role in pressuring Russia to begin peace talks. 'The road to ending this war, the road to peace, passes through Beijing more than it does Washington, Kyiv, or Moscow,' Graham told reporters. He added that bolstering Ukraine's military capabilities and aligning sanctions with diplomacy could force Moscow into talks. Four US senators, including Graham, said they had reached agreement with the Trump administration to advance updated Russia sanctions legislation. The bill would impose sanctions on countries doing business with Russia, including buyers of its energy exports, over Moscow's failure to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.
Russian forces dropped seven aerial bombs on Kramatorsk, a frontline town in eastern Ukraine, on Friday, killing four people, including a teenager, and injuring at least nine, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. A residential block, a shop, and private houses were damaged.
Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on Friday formally designated a former official of state nuclear company Energoatom as a suspect. The unnamed official, responsible for physical protection and security of facilities, is suspected of laundering over 30 million hryvnias (approximately $674,000) from 2023 to 2025. The so-called Midas case, involving a $100 million kickback scheme at Energoatom, has ensnared figures close to President Zelenskyy and cast a shadow over the government's anti-corruption efforts.
