The Ukrainians are fierce fighters. All they need to save democracy, theirs and possibly ours, are the weapons the world promised to them. With some of these weapons, they just did serious damage to Russia’s drilling platforms in the Black Sea. It looks as if U.S. weapons work just fine.
The three attacked oil and gas platforms were owned by a Crimean company based on the portion of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin stole, Crimea. On the peninsula, the people are pro-Russian.
After the three platforms were hit, only three individuals out of 109 workers died. In addition, there is an ongoing search for seven more workers from the Chernomorneftegaz Energy Company, according to the Crimean leader, Sergei Askyonov.
Only 44 miles from the Ukrainian port of Odesa, the oil rigs have stopped production while they fight fires. Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said that firefighters have been working on the fires for over “42 hours,” Reuters reported:
‘Additionally, 13 people were injured in Russia’s June 18 attack on the oil depot in Novomoskovsk District in the northeastern part of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, which caused a large-scale fire. According to Governor Valentyn Reznichenko, firefighters have been putting out the fire for more than 42 hours.’
A reporter for The Kyiv Independent, an English-speaking newspaper based in Kyiv, Illia Ponomarenko, tweeted that there has been a “drastic increase in the intensity of Ukrainian strikes:”
‘ONE JUST CAN’T HELP BUT SEE THE DRASTIC INCREASE IN THE INTENSITY OF UKRAINIAN STRIKES UNDERMINING KEY RUSSIAN MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE IN OCCUPIED DONBAS: RAILWAYS, HQS, MUNITION DEPOTS ETC. IN OTHER WORDS: WESTERN-PROVIDED LONGER-RANGE ARTILLERY IS WORKING.’
Putin’s people stole Chernomorneftegaz from the “Ukraine’s national gas operator Naftogaz as part of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014.” Europe and America have sanctioned it.
Moscow has been quite worried that the Ukrainians would do as they say, blow up Crimea’s entire infrastructure. That would include the Kerch bridge, which just opened in 2018 and linked the Crimean Peninsula to the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It cost about $3.5 billion to construct.
Putin began construction on the dual rail/road traffic bridge which is 11 miles long, according to The Road Traffic website. And it is one of the longest bridges in Russia:
‘The bridge is expected to be utilised (British spelling) by up to 40,000 vehicles and 47 pairs of trains a day.’
However, the death toll in Russia’s missile attack on the oil depot in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast continues to go up, according to The Kyiv Independent. It was located further inland in Ukrainian. No wonder Putin wants Ukraine with its mineral- and agriculture-rich land.
At this point in time, Reuters could not verify these reports, and the Ukrainian government did not comment.
Featured image is a screenshot. via YouTube.
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