(LONDON) – Russia’s economy is showing deepening cracks as Ukrainian long-range strikes pummel critical infrastructure, domestic unrest grows audible, and new data reveals industrial output and investment collapsing ahead of staged parliamentary elections.
Overnight drone attacks by Ukrainian forces set ablaze a large Wildberries logistics hub in the Krasny Bor area of Tosnensky district, Leningrad Oblast, south of St Petersburg. This marks the 13th such facility destroyed in a systematic campaign targeting Russia’s largest online retailer, a company with debts so vast it ranks just behind Russian Railways. A new tally shows 23 logistics centres now destroyed and only 17 remaining.
Separate strikes hit the Syzran oil refinery in Samara Oblast, approximately 900 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Satellite imagery confirmed extensive damage to the main catalytic reforming unit at the plant, which processes over 7 million tonnes of crude oil annually. The Ryazan oil refinery, located south of Moscow, is now entirely out of operation after repeated attacks destroyed its primary processing units. Further east, a major oil plant in Perm, nearly 1,800 kilometres from Ukraine, was also reported burning, though it remains unclear if Ukrainian action caused the blaze.
Bloomberg reported that Russian refining volumes in July fell to their lowest level since 2002, plummeting to 3.61 million barrels per day. The decline occurred before the latest wave of strikes on the country’s largest refineries. Grain exports collapsed by 37.6 percent year-on-year in July, with barley and maize shipments hit especially hard. State media attempted to bury the figure by headlining only a 17.7 percent drop in wheat exports. Meanwhile, Russians pulled a record sum from investment funds in July, marking the largest monthly outflow since records began in 1998.
With tightly managed elections six weeks away, public anger is spilling into the open. A video filmed in Samara and widely shared on social media showed a man driving past a burning Wildberries warehouse launching an expletive-laden tirade against the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, telling the Kremlin to “go to your friends in North Korea and Afghanistan.” Street interviews conducted across the country captured ordinary Russians saying they will not vote, do not trust the government, and see no good done by the ruling United Russia party over 26 years.
Russian military bloggers expressed alarm over the battlefield debut of Ukraine’s new Triada Robotics high-speed drone. The turbojet-powered weapon reportedly reaches speeds of 650 to 700 kilometres per hour, carries a payload of up to 200 kilogrammes, and has a range approaching 2,000 kilometres. Bloggers noted that shooting down such a drone is practically impossible for current Russian air defences. Separate data published by a Russian propagandist indicated Ukraine is now launching roughly three times as many drones as Russia each month, with Ukrainian launches soaring from 4,000 in January to 12,000 in July while Russian launches fell back to January levels.
On state television, Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov called for Russia to supply Iran with missiles capable of sinking the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier operating near Iranian waters.
Ridicule of the ageing dictator continued after authorities in Krasnoyarsk were caught slashing fuel prices at stations along Putin’s motorcade route, replicating an identical stunt pulled during a visit to Irkutsk the previous week. Prices dropped from 121 to 96 roubles (approximately 1.26 US dollars/0.99 British pounds to 1.00 US dollar/0.79 British pounds) for the day of his visit before rebounding hours later.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister warned that Russian forces are preparing a winter campaign to destroy Ukrainian water and sewage infrastructure, aiming to break civilian morale and force capitulation. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, returning empty-handed from Washington after what aides described as a collapsed joint production deal for Patriot interceptor missiles, announced a new European anti-ballistic missile coalition. The system, named Freya, will pair Ukrainian-built interceptor missiles and launchers with radar and sensor technology from 10 partner nations including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
Zelenskyy also repeated an offer to meet Putin and discuss a ceasefire in the air, a halt to energy infrastructure strikes, and a freeze of hostilities along the front line. The proposal, delivered through a presidential adviser, was viewed as a diplomatic manoeuvre designed to put Putin on the back foot weeks before his own domestic electoral ritual.
Footage emerged from the Kherson region showing a Russian drone hunting a civilian selling vegetables at a roadside market. The man survived the strike. Such “human safari” attacks on individual citizens in Kherson Oblast are a daily occurrence, according to local officials.
Footage of the Wildberries strike in Leningrad Oblast and the Ryazan refinery damage was released by Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. Satellite imagery of the Syzran refinery was published by the Russian opposition research group Black Spark.
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