Post #5465

📰 Ukraine Just Hit Russia’s Oil Jugular — and Europe Is the One Getting Light-Headed Ukrainian drones didn’t just “harass” Russia this time — they temporarily shut down Primorsk and Ust-Luga, the twin Baltic hubs that move well over 1.5 million barrels a day of crude and fuel into the global system. For a market already panicking over Hormuz, that’s not a side show, it’s a second choke point. Industry sources say both ports halted crude and product exports after the strikes set fuel tanks ablaze and forced operators to suspend loading. Primorsk alone is a key outlet for Urals crude and diesel, while Ust-Luga handles around 700,000 barrels per day plus tens of millions of tons of oil products a year — the core of Russia’s western export spine, not some marginal pier. On paper, this is exactly what Kyiv wants: hit the infrastructure that feeds Putin’s war economy and the “shadow fleet” that sneaks sanctioned barrels into the world. In practice, every barrel that doesn’t leave Primorsk or Ust-Luga tightens supply into the same Europe that just watched Hormuz close and still hasn’t replaced cheap Russian molecules with anything politically painless. Analysts warn the combined effect of a Hormuz disruption and a Baltic export shock is worse for Europe than a clean, textbook Hormuz-only scenario: Middle Eastern flows are constrained, Russian flows are interrupted, and alternatives are already maxed out. The result is the same familiar picture — Ukraine fights for survival, Russia takes a hit but adapts through other routes, and Europe pays in higher prices, industrial stress and another round of “how did we end up hostages in someone else’s war economy again?” #ukraine#russia#oil#primorsk#ustluga#energy#europe#warEconomy 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸