“It is important that this is an internal Russian assessment that they are trying to hide both from the world and from the domestic Russian audience,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote.
According to Zelenskyy, one of the first major signs of problems in Russia’s oil sector was a decline in the number of active wells. One Russian oil company has already been forced to shut down about 400 wells. The president said this represented significant losses for Russia because, due to the specifics of local oil extraction, restarting wells is much more difficult than in most other oil-producing countries.
“The second indicator is a reduction in oil refining by at least 10% in just the first few months of this year. We can see that our Ukrainian long-range sanctions are truly working, and we will continue expanding this direction of our active measures,” Zelenskyy wrote.
He added that data from Russia’s banking sector also pointed to a worsening economic situation. According to the president, 11 Russian banks are preparing for full liquidation because of problems that cannot be resolved by other means, while another eight financial institutions are facing critical difficulties and require outside support.
Zelenskyy also said a growing Russian federal budget deficit was another positive signal for Ukraine. According to him, the deficit had reached nearly $80 billion by the fifth month of the year, amid what he described as the bankruptcy of a significant number of Russia’s regional budgets.
The president said he had instructed Foreign Intelligence Service chief Oleh Luhovskyi to release information, in a way that would not compromise sources, about Russia’s attempts to involve global companies in efforts to stabilize its financial situation and circumvent sanctions.
Ukraine has also recorded attempts to organize grain exports from the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, as well as other forms of economic exploitation of the peninsula involving entities from the United States, Zelenskyy said.
In addition, Kyiv has documented attempts to channel investment and technology from democratic countries into Russian Arctic oil and gas projects, he added.