Ukraine Escalates Attacks On Russian Infrastructure

Reuters reporting that an overnight Ukrainian drone attack struck, and partially destroyed, an "oxygen station" at the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant in Russia’s Lipetsk region, around 400kms northwest of Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast.

• The strike appears to be part of an expansion of Ukrainian strategy targeting Russian manufacturing and energy infrastructure, counter to US advice to focus exclusively on military targets. This year, Ukraine has conducted 13 attacks on oil refineries in nine regions of Russia.
• Politico reports that separate drone strikes overnight destroyed, “two fuel storage and pumping bases in the Smolensk region, some 500 km from the border with Ukraine. The attacks on the facilities, owned by Russian oil giant Rosneft, resulted in the loss of 26,000 cubic meters of Russian fuel..”
• A Ukrainian official said: "The SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] continues to effectively destroy the military infrastructure and logistics that provide fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine. These objects are and will remain our legitimate targets.”
• The US will begin dispatching roughly USD$1 billion in new military aid for Ukraine today. The packagedoesn’t include the provision of new drones or long-range missile systems but additional defensive hardware may provide Ukraine greater flexibility to escalate attacks on Russian infrastructure.
• Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier today: "The longer the range of western weapons supplied, the further Russia will have to move the border of the buffer zone."