The absolutely, positively last thing Joe Biden wants to see before the election is a rise in gasoline prices at the pump. Nothing would be more damaging to his re-election chances than reminding people about his failed energy policies.
Ukraine is fighting for its existence as an independent country. Kyiv has had great success attacking Russian oil refineries, hitting Russia where it hurts most—in its pocketbook. It’s one of the few weapons that Ukraine possesses that materially affects Moscow’s ability to wage war.
But hitting those refineries causes the price of refined oil to rise on the world market, and Biden absolutely, positively can’t have that. So the administration has repeatedly warned Ukraine to leave the Russian refineries alone.
According to the Financial Times, the “warnings from Washington were delivered to senior officials at Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, and its military intelligence directorate, known as the GUR.”
Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election.
Washington is also concerned that if Ukraine keeps hitting Russian facilities, including many that are hundreds of miles from the border, Russia could retaliate by lashing out at energy infrastructure relied on by the west.
This includes the CPC pipeline carrying oil from Kazakhstan through Russia to the global market. Western companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron use the pipeline, which Moscow briefly shut in 2022.
“We do not encourage or enable attacks inside of Russia,” a spokesman for the National Security Council said. That’s not entirely true. As long as Ukraine leaves the oil refineries alone, Washington is OK with Kyiv hitting Russian military targets just about anywhere.
Unfortunately for Ukraine, Russia can play that game as well.
Russia launched a huge barrage of missiles and drones at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, leaving several cities without electricity and damaging the Dnipro hydropower plant, Ukraine’s biggest dam.
The attack put the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on the verge of a blackout, Ukraine’s energy ministry said. The Zaporizhzhia facility, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, has been occupied by Russia since 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin fired more than 60 drones and almost 90 missiles at Ukraine, targeting power plants and energy supply lines.
The cities of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Poltava, Dnipro, Odesa, and Khmelnytsky were left without power for several hours. But the biggest worry is losing the power generated by the Dnipro hydro plant. The loss of that facility would not only result in an unprecedented environmental disaster but would put the critical industrial region of Donetsk–Kryvyi Rih in the dark.
“Russians are trying to create a new ecological disaster, cynically hitting the hydroelectric facilities and the dam,” Ukrhydroenergo, the operator of the power plant said in a statement.
Unable to hit back at Moscow’s energy infrastructure invites more ruinous attacks like this one. Besides, it’s hardly the place of the U.S. to tell Ukraine how to fight a war.