As Trump vows to end war, deep strikes in Ukraine weaken Russia | Russia-Ukraine war News

As US President Donald Trump launched a 100-day effort to end the war in Ukraine, Kyiv’s long-range missiles were hitting the heart of Russia’s military — oil depots, weapons depots and factories.

Trump vowed on Monday, saying success will be measured “not only by the wars we win, but also by the wars we end and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into”.

That was in reference to his oft-stated belief that the administration of his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, made a mistake in allowing the war in Ukraine to begin, and his vow to end it quickly.

Trump’s special envoy, retired American General Keith Kellogg, has set himself a 100-day challenge to end the ceasefire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held an unprecedented meeting of the National Security Council on the day of Trump’s inauguration, reiterating his willingness to engage in negotiations. He said the solution must remove the causes of the war – referring to the expansion of NATO in the east.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, said on Wednesday that the Trump administration had given the deal a chance.

“Compared to the dishonesty under the previous US president, today, the chances are slim,” he said at an academic event in Moscow.

As these high political events unfolded, Ukraine was destroying Russian air defenses and burning the enemy’s fighting power.

That strategic interdiction campaign was weakening Russia’s war effort, said Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskii.

“For several months now, the regular use of ammunition by the Russian military has been reduced,” he told TSN, a Ukrainian television network.

“If previously this number reached 40,000 per day, now it has decreased significantly.

“These strikes reduce the Russian military’s ability to maintain a high level of combat,” he added.

During the last week, Ukraine has scored several hits.

Ukraine’s General Staff said three of its planes crashed into the Liskinskaya oil storage facility in Russia’s Voronezh region, bursting into flames on January 16.

“This oil depot supplies fuel to the Russian army,” they said.

Geolocated images showed the refinery burning that day.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said drones also attacked the Tambov Gunpowder Plant in Kuzmino-Gat. The facility produces gunpowder and nitrocellulose for use in rockets, artillery shells and other systems, he said.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff said Kyiv drones struck a fuel storage facility in Russia’s Tula region, setting it on fire.

The facility supplies the Russian military, officials said. Ukrainian warplanes also hit a Rosneft oil depot in the Kaluga region that supplies the military.

On the same day, vandals set fire to a train in St Petersburg, destroying it, the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Service (GUR) said. The engine was used to transport military equipment, GUR said.

Ukraine has been sending infantry in its campaign behind enemy lines to destroy Russian equipment.

On the day of Trump’s inauguration, Kovalenko said, Ukrainian drones struck the Gorbunov Aircraft Plant in Kazan.

It is a subsidiary of the Tupolev United Aircraft Corporation, which manufactures and repairs Tu-160 bombers, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Geolocated images showed direct hits on the factory’s fuel tanks.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s General Staff said its drones attacked the Liskinskaya refinery for the second time in a week.

“Tanks with fuel and lubricants, which the residents supply to the Russian army, are on fire,” they said.

They also attacked the Smolensk Aviation Plant, “where fighter jets are being modernized and produced”, the workers said.

Geolocated images showed fires in the plant.

Kovalenko said the facility manufactures Sukhoi Su-25 bombers, which are used to drop surface-to-air bombs on Ukraine’s front lines.

Battle on the ground

Russia continued to attack Ukrainian defenses last week, and on Friday succeeded after a year-long attempt to capture the village of Vremivka, on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border in eastern Ukraine.

Vremivka is adjacent to Velyka Novosilka, Ukraine again hosted the war in 2023.

Russia was willing to restore this position because it provided a place where Ukrainian supply and communication lines to Donetsk would be disrupted.

A Ukrainian official said Russians were outnumbered three to one in the area, showing Russia’s priorities.

Russia also appeared to be preparing a major new push to capture Pokrovsk, Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s advance on Kursk had diverted 60,000 capable Russians from the Ukrainian front to defend Russian soil.

But now, Russia has been massing units south of Pokrovsk, said Konstantin Mashovets, a retired Ukrainian colonel and military analyst, including parts of four different groups and three officers.

The coming together of different units would indicate that Russia is making great efforts to produce these forces.

“Now south of Pokrovsk there is an unusual strike group of the enemy, which is a kind of mixture of units and the formation of two armies at the same time,” said Mashovets.

“As a result of all these measures, by concentrating combat-ready units and formations in the narrow front, the enemy has gained and now has a great deal of power.”

Major Victor Tregubov, the spokesman for the Khortytsia unit that protects Pokrovsk, said that Russian soldiers are trying to destroy the city because they lack people to face them directly.

“To do this, they need to go to the west of the city, which they are currently trying to do,” Tregubov told the television station.

Syrskii told the webcast that the best Russian units are concentrated in Pokrovsk, indicating that this is a Russian priority.

He also revised previous estimates of Russian casualties last year, saying 434,000 Moscow soldiers were killed or wounded in 2024, with an estimated 150,000 killed.