Russia may use attacks on energy sector to blackmail Ukraine — military expert

He spoke about this on Espreso TV.

"We found a place to hit. At first, there was this gorgeous excuse that ‘oh, oh, oh, the United States is angry with you’ - whatever, we don't care now, we have seen that it works, sanctions from Budanov are much more effective than sanctions from Biden, we will continue them," the publicist said.

Dykyi emphasized that oil refineries across Russia on fire cannot be hidden even in their information space, because it is impossible to hide it.

"It was necessary to urgently show that: 'well, okay, we missed a couple of drones somewhere, who doesn't, but after that we just crushed these Khokhly (a derogatory term Russians use against Ukrainians- ed.), no one will get away with it'. This is one aspect, and the second is that they can most likely send us signals through some closed channels: ‘Stop harassing our oil and we will then leave your energy alone.’ This is a kind of bargain, and we should never accept it. We will endure, we will survive, but we need to finish off this weak spot that we have smeared on them," summarized the former platoon commander of the Aidar battalion.

• Last week, oil refineries in Russia were on fire, and dozens of drones flew over Russian regions almost daily, hitting various targets.
• On March 23, media shared that residents of Novokuybyshevsk, Samara region, reported a fire near a Rosneft oil refinery after a drone strike. Ukrainian intelligence reported an "incident".