As Trump vows to end war, deep Ukrainian strikes weaken Russia | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

US President Donald Trump also launched 100 day effort To end the war in Ukraine, Kiev’s long-range weapons destroyed the heart of the Russian war effort – oil depots, weapons depots and factories.

Trump took the oath of office on Monday, saying success would be measured “not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end, and perhaps more importantly, by the wars we never got into.”

This was an indication of his often stated belief that the administration of his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, had made a mistake in allowing the war to begin in Ukraine, and his pledge to end it quickly.

Trump’s special envoy, retired American General Keith Kellogg, set himself the challenge of 100 days to achieve a ceasefire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held an unprecedented meeting of the National Security Council on the day of Trump’s inauguration, reiterating his readiness to enter into negotiations. The solution must remove the root causes of the war, he said, referring to NATO’s eastward expansion.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, said on Wednesday that the Trump administration had provided an opportunity to reach an agreement.

“Compared to the pessimism under the previous US president, today there is little chance of opportunity,” he said at an academic event in Moscow.

As these developments unfolded in high politics, Ukraine was penetrating Russian air defenses and burning out some of the enemy’s ability to wage war.

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Sirsky said that this strategic blockade campaign clearly weakened the Russian war effort.

“Over several months, the normal consumption of artillery ammunition by the Russian army has halved,” he told Ukrainian television network TSN.

“If earlier this number reached 40 thousand per day, now it is much lower.

He added, “These strikes reduce the ability of Russian forces to maintain a high intensity of combat operations.”

Ukraine recorded several strikes over the past week.

The Ukrainian General Staff said that three drones struck the Leskinskaya oil depot in Russia’s Voronezh region, setting it on fire on January 16.

“This oil depot provides fuel for the Russian army,” they said.

Geolocated footage showed the refinery burning that day.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, said drones also bombed the Tambov powder factory at Kozmino Gat. He added that the factory produces gunpowder and nitrocellulose for use in missile systems, artillery shells, and other systems.

The Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday that Kiev drones struck a petroleum products storage facility in Russia’s Tula region, causing it to catch fire.

The facility supplies the Russian armed forces, employees said. Ukrainian drones also bombed a Rosneft oil depot in the Kaluga region that supplies the army.

On the same day, saboteurs set fire to a locomotive in St. Petersburg, destroying it, the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Service reported. GUR said the engine was used to transport war materials.

Ukraine is deploying infantry soldiers in its campaign behind enemy lines to destroy Russian equipment.

Kovalenko said that on the day of Trump’s inauguration, Ukrainian drones bombed the Gorbunov aircraft factory in Kazan.

It is a subsidiary of Tupolev United Aircraft, which produces and repairs Tu-160 strategic bombers, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Geolocated footage showed direct hits to the factory’s fuel tanks.

The Ukrainian General Staff said on Tuesday that its drones had struck the Leskinskaya refinery for the second time in a week.

They added, “Tanks loaded with fuel and lubricants provided by the occupiers to the Russian forces are burning.”

The planes also bombed the Smolensk Aviation Plant “where modernization and production of combat aircraft are also carried out,” employees said.

Geolocated footage showed fires at the factory.

The factory makes Sukhoi Su-25 bombers, which are used to drop glide bombs on Ukrainian front lines, Kovalenko said.

War on land

Russia has continued to attack Ukrainian defenses over the past week, and on Friday, after a year-long effort, it succeeded in seizing the village of Vrymivka, on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border in eastern Ukraine.

Vrymivka is located next to Velika Novoselka, which Ukraine retook in a counterattack in 2023.

Russia was keen to regain this site because it provided an observation point from which Ukrainian supply and communications lines in Donetsk could be disrupted.

A Ukrainian officer said the Russians had a three-to-one numerical superiority in the area, demonstrating Russian priorities.

Russia also appears to be preparing a new major offensive to seize the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk led to 60,000 more capable Russian troops being diverted from the Ukrainian front to defend Russian territory.

But Russia is now mobilizing units south of Pokrovsk, consolidating elements from four different brigades and three regiments, said Konstantin Mashovets, a retired Ukrainian colonel and military analyst.

The sticking of disparate units together could indicate that Russia was making superior efforts to generate these forces.

“South of Pokrovsk there is now a rather strange enemy strike group, which is a mixture of units and formations of two armies at once,” Mashevets said.

“Thanks to all these measures, and by concentrating its combat-ready units and formations on a rather narrow sector of the front line, the enemy has obtained and now enjoys a significant superiority in forces.”

Major Viktor Trigubov, spokesman for the Khortytsya unit defending Pokrovsk, said Russian forces were trying to make a final walk around the city because they lacked the manpower to deal with it directly.

“To do this, they have to go west of the city, which is what they are currently trying to do,” Trigubov told a TV channel.

The best Russian units are stationed in Pokrovsk, Sirsky said in a webcast, indicating that this is Russia’s top priority.

He also revised the previous estimates upward for Russian casualties last yearSaying that 434,000 Moscow forces were killed or wounded in 2024, of whom an estimated 150,000 were killed.