Russian army scrambles for supplies after devastating Ukrainian strikes on fuel depots
Nation6 January 2025, 10:17 AM
Crimean partisans link this to the Russian military command's attempts to safeguard its logistics, having suffered significant losses due to a series of successful strikes by Ukraine’s Defense Forces.
This shift in tactics follows a statement by Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, who called for replacing centralized military bases with an echeloned network of smaller supply depots.
"By doing this, the occupiers are endangering civilians and violating the Geneva Convention," the partisan group stated.
ATESH reported in December that Russian forces were trying to protect their fuel depots in the occupied Crimea.
"The occupiers are taking measures to minimize damage in case of an attack: they are covering fuel tanks with nets and stacking sandbags on top to prevent large-scale fires if a facility is hit," they said, adding that Russia is implementing this approach across multiple military sites on the peninsula.
In December, reports emerged of Russian military fuel tankers being set on fire in the Russian city of Novosibirsk.
Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) confirmed that resistance forces set several military fuel trucks ablaze inside a Russian military facility.
"The resistance against Russia’s criminal war on Ukraine continues inside the aggressor state," HUR said then.
Earlier, sources within Ukraine’s security services and defense forces told NV that on Dec. 14, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), along with the Tavria Operational and Strategic Group, HUR, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), carried out a unique multi-stage special operation to destroy a Russian military train in Zaporizhzhya Oblast.
The primary objective of the operation was to sever supply routes transporting fuel from Crimea to the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhya Oblast.