Ukraine is increasingly striking Russia’s military and energy infrastructure. On the night of 30 August, Ukrainian forces hit facilities used to store and launch attack drones, a military airfield in Yeysk, targets in the Black Sea and an oil refinery in the Leningrad region. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described these long-range strikes as a way of depriving Russia of the resources needed to continue its war.
For Ukraine, this is a matter of security. For the nations subjugated by Russia, it is also a matter of historical opportunity.
The Russian imperial system depends on more than repression. It needs money, fuel, military production, transport and the ability of the centre to control an enormous territory. Every blow against this system raises the cost of imperial warfare and reduces the Kremlin’s ability to maintain control.
The strategic goal, therefore, is not simply to “punish Russia”. It is to deprive the imperial centre of the ability to wage a war of conquest.
Ukraine is also providing its partners with information about foreign components, machinery and chemicals on which Russia’s military machine depends, urging them to close sanctions-evasion channels.
The weaker Moscow becomes, the fewer resources it has for war, repression and maintaining its colonial periphery.
For subjugated nations, this means one thing: the defeat of Russian imperialism could become not the end of their history, but the beginning of their own.
Українські національні новини
