Satellite Images Contradict Putin’s Coal Storage Claims

(ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA) – Ukraine has executed one of its most far reaching drone campaigns of the war, striking targets from St Petersburg to locations more than 2,000 kilometres from its border beyond the Ural Mountains. The attacks have prompted open accusations from Russian commentators that the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, is misleading the public about the scale of the destruction.

Among the targets hit overnight was a massive fuel storage facility in Krasnodar Krai, one of the largest in southern Russia. Russian military bloggers warn that growing attacks on fuel infrastructure and logistics routes are beginning to threaten supplies needed to sustain frontline operations.

The fuel crisis in occupied Crimea continues to deepen. Residents are reportedly leaving the peninsula in search of petrol, only to find shortages spreading into neighbouring Russian regions. Some shops have introduced purchase limits as shelves empty, while occupation authorities have established a hotline for people seeking assistance to leave Crimea.

Russia’s oil refining sector is facing mounting pressure as repeated Ukrainian strikes disrupt production, storage and transportation networks. At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, however, Putin attempted to downplay the recent attacks. He claimed Ukrainian forces had struck little more than a coal storage area. Videos and satellite imagery tell a starkly different story, showing significant damage to oil facilities and Baltic Fleet infrastructure near St Petersburg.

Meanwhile, prominent Russian military bloggers acknowledge that Russian forces are losing ground in several sectors of the front. Despite the deteriorating situation, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continues to insist that Moscow’s objectives remain unchanged, repeating Kremlin claims about “protecting Russian speakers” in Ukraine.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are expanding their ability to interdict Russian logistics in the south. Reports indicate growing Ukrainian fire control over routes stretching from Melitopol toward Chonhar, further complicating the movement of supplies and reinforcements between occupied Crimea and Russian forces operating in southern Kherson Oblast.