The AFU Destroyed A Key Sector Of The Russian Economy
- 3.11.2025, 16:25
Drone strikes have made Russia an importer.
Russia is throwing another KAB at Kharkiv. This is an occasion to sharpen up on last night (especially as information is already coming in about today's activity of good drones).
1. Unmanned systems forces have released a list of power substations they were able to reach. One of them is near Lipetsk. Four more - in the temporarily occupied territory of the Lugansk region.
The SBU published a series of videos of drone strikes on warehouses and places of concentration of Russian soldiers in the occupied Donbass. (The first news today is also from the occupied part of the Donetsk region.)
Besides building a kill zone at tactical depth along the LBS and long-range strikes on Russian regions, another emphasis has emerged - drone strikes at a conditionally "medium range", over 70 km.
There is no need to talk about the meaning here, everything is obvious. This is an analog of HIMARS MLRS. Since the missiles are scarce, not ours and suffer greatly from the opposition of the Russians, the drones significantly supplement the arsenal.
2. Yesterday, the GUR reported the undermining of a ring oil pipeline in the Moscow region, which serves Moscow's needs.
The Russian capital is still out of range due to the off the scale density of missile defense systems, but it is being "trained" every night so as not to relax and try to disperse defense assets.
The mapping of energy and fuel points in other regions, where incidents are taking place, cannot help but make Moscow's leadership think that the clouds are thickening. And they may thicken at the moment when the temperature drops. Now there is an accumulation of factors.
3. In the evening, news arrived from Russia, which was not particularly noted here.
The Russian government has imposed a temporary ban on the export of technical (liquid, granulated and lump) sulfur until the end of the year. The restrictions do not apply to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as the occupied territories of Georgia. The justification for the ban was prepared a week earlier.
Technical sulfur is used for various purposes, but to a large extent - for the manufacture of mineral fertilizers. Russia is one of the world's leading producers of technical sulfur (5.6 million tons in 2024) and has traditionally sold it abroad, but in 2024 - reduced exports due to the growing needs of domestic fertilizer producers.
The main producers of sulfur are GPPs, refineries and oil and gas chemical complexes (OGCC). Sulfur is produced from acid gases generated during the purification of high-sulfur hydrocarbon raw materials. In total, there are about three dozen producers.
That is. About 62-65% of Russian technical sulfur was produced by Gazpromdobycha-Astrakhan. Another 8-10% was produced by Gazpromdobycha-Orenburg. Among the leaders are Lukoil - Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez and Ryazanskaya NPK (plus a total of 4-5%). Total - 75-80% of the total volume.
On September 22nd and 27th SBS successfully reached the Astrakhan gas processing plant.
On October 16th good drones visited Kstovo ("Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez").
On October 19th-20th SBS worked on the Orenburg gas processing plant.
In Ryazan 10 days ago there was a "missed" one (before that - one each in September and August).
No other facilities engaged in gas purification and sulfur production were left without attention. For example, on October 9, the SDF hit the Korobkovsky GPP (Volgograd Region). But the key is Astrakhan and Orenburg.
On October 17, Kommersant published a story highlighting that Russia has started... importing sulfur. The world market is seeing an increase in applications from Russia due to disruptions in domestic supplies.
If cross-analysis of data from other countries confirms the absence of exports and the emergence of imports, it would mean that Ukraine's defense forces saw off an entire Russian industry for months. An example of a small chain reaction.
Alexei Kopytko, Facebook