Ukraine has opened the year with a sweeping campaign of long range strikes that has set 10 Russian oil depots ablaze, exposed gaps in Kremlin air defenses, and forced the shutdown of a major Moscow airport. The attacks, carried out with drones and missiles across a vast stretch of territory, have pushed the war deep into Russian rear areas and turned the capital into a city that now lives under near constant threat. I see in these operations not only a tactical bid to choke Russia’s fuel lifelines, but also a strategic message that the front line is no longer confined to Ukrainian soil.
Oil depots in flames and a Moscow airport halted
The most dramatic development has been the coordinated strikes that hit 10 Russian oil facilities almost simultaneously, igniting huge fires and briefly paralyzing parts of the country’s energy network. Flames erupted from at least one refinery shortly after midnight, with emergency crews racing to contain the blaze as storage tanks and pipelines burned in scenes that Russian social media could not easily hide. In Moscow, the pressure on air defenses was so intense that authorities shut a major airport after Ukrainian drones penetrated the protective ring around the capital, a step that underscored how far the war has shifted from the trenches to the infrastructure that sustains Russia’s campaign.
Reports from inside Russia describe how Ukraine overwhelmed local defenses around several depots, leaving Russian officials to acknowledge damage even as they insisted that most incoming weapons were intercepted. Earlier strikes had already shown the vulnerability of these sites, with Flames rising from an oil refinery after another night time attack that Russian media struggled to downplay. The pattern is clear to me: by repeatedly hitting fuel hubs and forcing the closure of a Moscow airport, Kyiv is signaling that Russian territory and logistics are now part of the battlefield.
A record reach of 1,300 km and a widening target set
What makes this campaign different from earlier Ukrainian operations is its sheer geographic reach. On the first night of the new year, Ukrainian forces launched a long range strike that traveled a 1,300 km arc, reaching as far as Tatarstan and setting 10 Russian oil facilities ablaze far from the front line. That operation, described as a coordinated effort that struck multiple refineries and storage hubs, showed that Ukraine can now hit deep inside Russia’s industrial heartland rather than only border regions. I read that as a deliberate attempt to force the Kremlin to disperse air defenses and to remind Russian citizens that distance from the trenches no longer guarantees safety.
Kyiv’s own intelligence services have framed these attacks as part of a broader strategy to degrade Russia’s ability to finance and fuel its war. According to Ukrainian officials, recent long range drone and missile strikes have already hit more than 50 critical Russia infrastructure sites, including oil depots, refineries, and logistics nodes. When I connect that figure to the Record distance of the Tatarstan strike, the picture that emerges is of a methodical campaign rather than isolated raids. Ukraine is not only hitting fuel, it is testing and mapping Russian air defenses across a huge swath of territory.
Belgorod, Volgograd and the Caspian Sea: a new geography of risk
The oil depots that burned in the latest wave of attacks are part of a wider pattern that has already stretched from Russia’s land border with Ukraine to the Caspian Sea. In the Belgorod region, a Fire at an oil depot followed what state television described as a Ukrainian drone strike, with local authorities in Russia’s Belgorod scrambling to reassure residents as smoke rose over the city. A few days later, officials in the Volgograd region reported that a drone launched by Ukraine had caused another fire at an oil depot in Russia’s Volgograd region, again highlighting how fuel infrastructure has become a frontline target.
The maritime dimension is just as striking. Ukrainian stop oil activists of the SOF have claimed responsibility for hitting three Russian drilling platforms in the Caspian Sea with long range drones, an operation dated as 11.01 in their account. That same description appears in a separate Ukrainian post that frames the Caspian Sea platforms as part of Russia’s wider energy machine. When I place Belgorod, Volgograd and the Caspian Sea on the same mental map, it is clear that Kyiv is trying to make every Russian oil asset, whether on land or offshore, a potential target.
Moscow as a frontline city and the strain on air defenses
The strikes on oil depots are unfolding alongside a relentless tempo of attacks on the Russian capital itself. Moscow’s authorities now treat the city as a frontline zone, with air raid alerts and drone interceptions becoming part of daily life. In one intense 24 hour period, Russian defenses reported downing 57 drones over and around the city, a figure that captures both the scale of Ukrainian efforts and the strain on Russian systems. The phrase Capital Under Siege, used in that context, is not an exaggeration in my view, it reflects a reality in which the Kremlin must now defend its own skies as fiercely as it attacks Ukraine’s.
Russian officials insist that their forces are coping, pointing to claims that they shot down 207 Ukrainian drones and 11 guided missiles in a single 24 hour span. Yet even those numbers, if accurate, suggest a level of incoming fire that would test any integrated air defense network. Earlier footage of Ukrainian drone attacks disrupting Moscow airports ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations already showed how quickly civilian air traffic can be thrown into chaos. When I link that history to the latest shutdown of a Moscow airport after oil depot strikes, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Russia’s air defenses are being stretched across too many threats at once.
A duel of infrastructure: oil for power and the risks ahead
Ukraine’s focus on Russian oil has unfolded in parallel with renewed Russian attacks on Ukraine’s own critical infrastructure, especially the power grid. In one major barrage, Russian forces launched missiles and drones at energy sites across Ukraine, with the General Staff later reporting that Seven enemy drones were destroyed over Russia’s Rostov region, where Gov Yuri Slyusar confirmed an attack on the coastal city of Taganrog. That detail matters because it shows that even as Russia tries to knock out Ukrainian power plants, some of the fighting is spilling back over its own territory, blurring the line between offensive and defensive operations. I see a grim symmetry here: Ukraine hits oil to sap Russia’s war machine, Russia hits electricity to break Ukraine’s resilience.
Inside Ukraine, the cost of this duel is measured in blackouts and damaged substations, while inside Russia it is counted in burning depots and disrupted flights. Ukrainian officials argue that by striking Russian oil infrastructure they are targeting the very fuel that powers missile launches and armored columns. Russian statements, in turn, frame their own attacks as retaliation against Ukraine for bringing the war onto Russian soil. When I weigh these narratives against the hard facts of burning refineries, shattered power lines and a Moscow that now lives under constant alert, I am left with a sobering conclusion. The war has entered a phase in which infrastructure itself is the battlefield, and every new strike on oil or power risks pulling the conflict even deeper into the daily lives of civilians on both sides.