Russian fighter jets hit on the ground, deep inside Russia.
Kyiv Independent reports:
“A Ukrainian strike allegedly damaged two Russian military aircraft — a MiG-31 and either a Su-30 or Su-34 fighter jet — at an airfield used to launch Kinzhal missile attacks, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on May 9.
The extent of the damage is still being assessed, the military said.
Ukraine’s overnight strike targeted the Savasleyka airfield in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, which the Kremlin uses to launch MiG-31K jets armed with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, according to the General Staff.
The operation was conducted by Ukrainian Special Operations Forces in coordination with other units.”
Trump is restrained from imposing the Bone Crushing Sanctions, until the EU gets itself out of the line of fire, and stops buying Russian oil products, LNG and uranium.
OilPrice.com reports:
“Senior Washington-based legal sources who work closely with the White House exclusively told OilPrice.com last week, that the Presidential Administration is “closer than ever” to imposing at least some of the “devastating measures” on Russia that Trump mentioned recently.
A key point to note is that although the sanctions element of these measures could be imposed at any time independently by the U.S., they are in reality likely to complement the new sanctions measures being rolled out by the European Union (E.U.)...
...Dovetailing at least in part to these (past EU sanctions) measures, the new U.S. sanctions would also involve additional targeting of vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet and firms associated with that trade, according to the Washington sources. “The number of vessels sanctioned would be increased big time, and so would the number of associated [Russian] oil and gas companies beyond Gazpromneft and Surgutneftegas that were sanctioned earlier this year,” said one of the Washington-based sources last week...
...Much more is to come from both the U.S. and Europe – again, with several key measures being similar. In Europe’s case, according to a senior source in the E.U.’s energy security complex exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com recently, further measures are going to be taken to tighten up the monitoring of the Russian System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), which was established to act as an alternative to the international SWIFT payment system. In its earlier 16th sanctions package, the E.U. imposed a ban on all SPFS transactions that occur outside Russia itself and imposed multiple sanctions on neighboring Belarus as a broader signal of its intentions to allies and potential allies of Russia.
Additionally, the E.U. will focus on a likely reduction in the current US$60 per barrel (pb) price cap on Russian oil. Premium products are capped at US$100 pb, and discounted products at US$45 pb. President Trump has been reluctant to do the same so far, fearing that it might threaten some part of the U.S.’s own oil industry, but according to the Washington sources, he appears less against the idea now. In its next package of sanctions, the E.U. is also looking at expanding sanctions relating to gas pipelines, banks, and payment networks and mechanisms not just relating directly to Russia but involved in any way connected to it...
...Many of these measures also tie in with dramatically increased surveillance by the E.U. included in its last – and next planned – package of sanctions. This is seen very clearly in the E.U.’s 6 May roadmap to phase out Russian energy imports completely by the end of 2027, which features enormously improved mechanisms to improve the transparency, monitoring and traceability of Russian gas and oil across the E.U. markets. New contracts with suppliers of Russian gas will be prevented and spot contracts will be stopped by the end of this year. Another part will increasingly restrict new supply contracts co-signed by the Euratom Supply Agency for uranium, enriched uranium and other nuclear materials deriving from Russia.
The U.S.’s ‘Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025’ (Bone Crushing Sanctions) also echoes this policy, with Washington threatening the imposition of tariffs of at least 500% on imports from any country that: “Knowingly sells, supplies, transfers, or purchases oil, uranium, natural gas, petroleum products, or petrochemical products that originated in the Russian Federation”.
This close practical co-ordination between the U.S. and its allies in Europe and elsewhere is unsurprising, given that the aims of these sanctions are twofold now, according to the Washington sources: “First, it is to end the war in Ukraine once and for all, and second to erase any idea in Putin’s head that he can win any further conflict in Europe”.