Certain components of Russia’s exports fell by 80% in August – Zelenskyy
President Zelenskyy received a briefing from the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Oleh Ivashchenko, including on the results of strikes by the Defence Forces against targets in Russia.
The head of state reported this on Telegram, according to Censor.NET.
Details
"Our military intelligence has recorded that, according to internal Russian documents, certain components of exports from the aggressor state have already fallen by 80% this month alone. These are significant losses for Russia’s federal budget, as well as for regional budgets that were already on the verge of bankruptcy," the president noted.
According to Zelenskyy, Russia acknowledges that the ships of its Black Sea Fleet have effectively been blockaded in Novorossiysk due to Ukrainian strikes and are unable to operate at sea.
"The Russian leadership cannot find a way out of this situation. Since the Russian fleet is unable to escort commercial and shadow fleet vessels calling at the relevant ports, the options under consideration include equipping civilian vessels with small arms and electronic warfare equipment, as well as deploying military personnel aboard them. We will prepare appropriate means of responding to Russia’s militarisation of shipping," he stressed.
Effectiveness of Ukrainian strikes
"Military intelligence confirms the high effectiveness of our deep strikes, particularly against Russian military production facilities and oil industry sites. According to the data available to us, which is based on information from the Russian side itself, following a series of our long-range sanctions against the Kamensky Combine in the Rostov region, the Russians lost a significant portion of their solid-fuel rocket engine production capacity. We will continue this long-range work," the president noted.
Ballistic missile production
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine has updated data on Russia’s production of ballistic missiles and its plans to scale up that production.
"We will counter this, and it is important that appropriate sanctions support be provided in the world’s major jurisdictions. All supplies of components, equipment, and machine tools that Russia uses to manufacture missiles must be completely blocked. This is also the responsibility of our partners: without foreign components, the Russians are incapable of implementing a single element of their missile programme," the head of state stressed.
Strikes on oil refineries
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has evidence that one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, located in Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region and capable of processing 17 million tonnes of oil annually, has ceased operations, along with other oil refineries.
