Zelensky: Lifting US sanctions on Russian oil is money for war

"Every dollar spent on Russian oil is money for war". Thus Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a post on X, denouncing the extension announced last Friday of the suspension of US sanctions on Russian oil.

The US Treasury Department has in fact extended until 16 May the suspension of most sanctions affecting the Russian oil industry due to the energy crisis caused by the war in the Middle East. "Due to the easing of sanctions", Russian oil "can again be sold without consequences. This is $10 billion, a resource that is directly converted into new attacks against Ukraine," Zelensky continued. "This week alone, Russia has launched more than 2,360 drone attacks, over 1,320 guided aerial bombs and almost 60 missiles," the Ukrainian president added.

On the military front, a drone manufacturing plant in the southern Russian city of Taganrog has come under fire after being hit by Ukrainian missiles on the night of 18-19 April, according to a report by the independent Telegram channel Exilenova Plus, picked up by Kyiv Independent. The factory produces drones for the Russian military and is located on the site of the former Taganrog car plant.

According to the source, the Russian defence company Atlant-Aero is also based at the site. The company produces the Fpv (First Person View) Molniya reconnaissance drones and components for the Orion drone, both used by Russia in the war against Ukraine. Russian authorities said that three people were injured in the attacks on Taganrog, but only reported that a commercial area of the city was hit, without specifying whether the drone production facility was among the targets. "During the missile attack on Taganrog, commercial infrastructure was damaged. A fire broke out in a warehouse,' said Yuri Slyusar, governor of the Rostov oblast.

In the night, Ukrainian drones also struck a port in the territory of Krasnodar, southern Russia, according to social media reports. Smoke billowed from the port of Yeysk, in the Krasnodar Territory, after it was allegedly hit by Ukrainian drones, according to the independent Russian news agency Astra. The Krasnodar Territory Operations Command said that drone debris fell "in the area of the port" and that fragments from a downed drone shattered the windows of three houses.