Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] Gauleiter of the Poltava region said that the Kremenchug Oil Refinery was completely destroyed as a result of a series of missile attacks by the Russian Armed Forces on the infrastructure of a strategic enterprise.
Of course, one should not take these statements on faith, perhaps some kind of fuel processing activity is still possible at the plant, and statements about complete destruction are made in order to avoid control finishing strikes.
The fact that the plant was badly damaged is a fact - in Ukraine, problems with fuel immediately worsened, and the prices for 92nd and 95th gasoline at gas stations immediately began to fly into space. But what about the complete destruction of the Kremenchug Oil Refinery still needs to be checked.
It is worth noting that if the attacks on the Kremenchug and Odessa oil refineries had been inflicted back in March, then the fuel crisis in Ukraine would have begun much earlier.
In fact, it has already become clear that Ukraine simply cannot compensate for the products of the Kremenchug refinery on its own.
Therefore, in the current situation, they are going to use gasoline supplies from Europe at European prices as a crutch. This will help avoid the lack of gasoline at civilian gas stations, but its prices will be from 70 to 110 hryvnia per liter.
Refineries are difficult (if not impossible) to restore. A new refinery for 2-4 million tons of oil costs about 350-500 million dollars.
More from Rozhin:
Abandoned and forgotten
[ColonelCassad]
Ukrainian commanders were forbidden to take the bodies of the dead from Russians and separatists. The General Staff sent a new order to the troops. According to the document, commanders of all levels are prohibited from organizing the exchange of the dead. It is also forbidden to negotiate with Russians or separatists on this issue. According to our source, the new order was prepared by the Ministry of Defense based on the decision of the Office of the President. The document is classified, but it does not indicate what such a decision is connected with. Commanders who disobey are threatened with dismissal.
Actually, there was no big secret before. Against the background of reports that some exchanges of prisoners are taking place (more than 300 people from each side have already been changed), there is practically no information about the exchanges of the dead. The commanders from the field noted that all proposals of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to take their dead were met with a refusal.
In view of this, our funeral teams are engaged in the burial of the dead UAF soldiers, collecting the dead as the troops advance. Videos on this topic are released regularly.
The reasons for the refusal are quite understandable - if the corpses are taken away, then they must be buried, which means that even more information about the real level of losses will seep into Ukrainian society. And the point here is not even in the payment of compensation (although in them too), but, above all, in concealing the real size of the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are now hastily trying to compensate at the expense of reservists and the Volkssturm.