Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries deepen tensions with U.S.
BRUSSELS — When Vice President Harris met privately with Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference in February, she told the Ukrainian leader something he didn’t want to hear:Refrain from attacking Russian oil refineries, a tactic U.S. officials believed would raise global energy prices and invite more aggressive Russian retaliation inside Ukraine.
The request, according to officials familiar with the matter, irritated Zelensky and his top aides, who view Kyiv’s string of drone strikes on Russian energy facilities as a rare bright spot in a grinding war with a bigger and better equipped foe.
Zelensky brushed off the recommendation, uncertain whether it reflected the consensus position of the Biden administration, these people said. But in subsequent weeks, Washington reinforced the warning in multiple conversations with Kyiv, including by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who traveled to Ukraine’s capital in March, and other senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials.
Instead of acquiescing to the U.S. requests, however, Ukraine doubled down on the strategy, striking a range of Russian facilities, including an April 2 attack on Russia’s third-largest refinery 800 miles from the font.
The incidents have exacerbated tensions in a strained relationship as Kyivwaits to learn whether Congress will pass a long-stalled $60 billion aid package while Russia’s forces pierce Ukrainian positions across the front lines. The long-range Ukrainian strikes, which have hit more than a dozenrefineries since January and disrupted at least 10 percent of Russian oil refinery capacity, come as President Biden ramps up his reelection campaign and global oil prices reach a six-month high.
U.S., Ukrainian and European officials spoke about the diverging views between Washington and Kyiv on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive dispute. A spokesman for Zelensky declined to comment.
U.S. officials say the rationale behind their warnings is more nuanced than critics suggest.
Keeping global energy markets supplied to help cool inflation is a priority for the administration, officials acknowledge. But it’s also important for sustaining support for the Ukrainian war effort in Europe. “An increase in energy prices risks dampening European support for Ukraine aid,” a senior U.S. official said.
The military benefit of Ukraine’s bombing campaign is also of questionable value, U.S. officials say.
“Ukraine is better served in going after tactical and operational targetsthat can directly influence the current fight,” Austin told lawmakers.
The concern among U.S. military planners is that the strikes do little to diminish Russia’s war-fighting abilities and have resulted in a massive Russian counterattack on Ukraine’s electricity grid that hurts Ukraine far more than the refinery attacks hurt Russia.
“Drone attacks do not destroy entire refineries and usually do not even destroy individual units, but only damage them,” Sergey Vakulenko, an oil industry expert, wrote in an analysis for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The Ust-Luga and Ryazan refineries were both back in operation a few weeks after being attacked.”
In recent weeks, Russia has unleashed a barrage of exploding drones and missiles on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions without power and raising fears that the attacks could bring Ukraine’s economy to a halt. The attacks destroyed a power plant in the Kyiv region and damaged Ukraine’s biggest hydroelectric power plant and multiple thermal power plants.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks were in direct response to Ukraine’s drone strikes on refineries and other infrastructure deep within its territory.
Now Ukrainian officials are in desperate need to protect their cities, causing further strain over air defense resources between Kyiv and the West. Last week, Zelensky dispatched his top diplomat, Dmytro Kuleba, to Brussels, where NATO foreign ministers gathered to commemorate the military alliance’s 75th anniversary. Kuleba’s chief demand was for Western countries to donate more Patriot batteries, a U.S.-designed air defense system that costs more than $1 billion. …
Others have said U.S. concerns about higher energy prices because of the refinery attacks are unfounded, noting that the latest increases are due to OPEC Plus production cuts and instability linked to Israel’s war with Hamas. “There is a small geopolitical premium on crude attached to Middle East violence,” said Tom Kloza, head of energy analysis at the petroleum price reporting company OPIS. “Most of the move to higher prices can be attributed to OPEC Plus production cuts.” ..
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ukraine-s-attacks-on-russian-oil-refineries-deepen-tensions-with-us/ar-BB1lDxy7