The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning that the drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation, according to three people familiar with the discussions. […]

One person said that the White House had grown increasingly frustrated by brazen Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck oil refineries, terminals, depots and storage facilities across western Russia, hurting its oil production capacity.

Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election.

Un-paywalled link: https://archive.ph/wv1Y3

  • Baggins@piefed.social
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    8 months ago

    FFS America, you don’t get it both ways. You should have come down ruthlessly on anyone trading with Russia. But you did it all limp wristed and weakly.

    Get a grip, get those weapons to Ukraine because there will be no stopping Putin if Russia wins this. And your orange idiot will back him all the way.

  • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
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    8 months ago

    I despise war, but if you gotta defend, destroying the enemy’s fuel supply is a great tactic. I am sure Ukraine is not exactly worried about global oil prices lmao

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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    8 months ago

    ffs, William Spaniel already made a video about this. Ukraine is only targeting Russian oil because the US is withholding military aid. There’s no incentive for Ukraine to weaken its war efforts and keep oil prices low, if the US isn’t going to give Ukraine anything in return. You can’t go around complaining about the economic impact of a WAR.

    • CAVOK@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Isn’t it the republicans withholding aid to Ukraine? So bombing refineries would drive up prices, making Biden unpopular, increasing the likelihood of Trump getting elected which would make more aid even more unlikely? Or am I missing something? 🤔

      Not bombing them allows Russia to make money though, so it seems both choices are bad ones here.

      • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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        8 months ago

        That’s a good point. I hadn’t considered that incentive. It’s possible that maybe Ukraine will hold off on oil attacks until after the election, then.

    • nivenkos@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s just hilarious that the US will bomb Nordstream and push Europe into crisis, whilst resisting any action that might raise their oil prices in the election year.

      Just so one-sided it’s incredible.

      • rinze@infosec.pubOP
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        8 months ago

        It’s not yet proven that it was the US, no? I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised at all, but I still don’t know that’s a fact.

          • brainrein@feddit.de
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            8 months ago

            You mean like all the other conspiracy theories about the USA?

            That they secretly made a weapons deal with Iran to get money to support the Contras in Nicaragua for example. That they helped to kill democratically elected Allende and install the dictator Pinochet. That they staged a false flag operation to take over the Vietnam war from the French. That they helped take down democratically elected Mossadegh in Iran and install the Shah. That they produced false evidence as pretext to invade Irak. Two times. That they tried many times to assassinate Fidel Castro.

            Sorry, but things happening in the world matching American interests makes me suppose they did it. I am convinced they did it. I am old, I can’t wait 30 years for the archives to open till I blame somebody.

            They did it!

        • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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          8 months ago

          Most people suspect it was Ukraine, honestly. But there’s a bunch of people who will try to blame America every chance they get.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            I have yet to see an argument of how Ukraine has the capability to do it: The explosions are consistent with two depth charges being put squarely on top of the pipelines. Not just dropped, that would’ve been less accurate. Those things are huge and heavy you’d either need a team of divers and lots of time, or a submarine. The number of actors with capability to do it that way isn’t exactly large, and Ukraine isn’t really on it. Germany and Russia certainly is, US – I doubt it. They’re not good at all at sneaky submarines and nothing goes past the Danes or through the Kiel channel without being detected while a medium-sneaky Russian sub could’ve done it as it’s already in the Baltic Sea, anyway.

            • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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              8 months ago

              Yeah thats a good point. It was mostly the newspapers here in Sweden saying that Ukraine was the top suspect. I believe they thought the charges were set with divers, no Submarine involved, but maybe there’s been more analysis since then.

      • brainrein@feddit.de
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        8 months ago

        But that’s what Hegemons do, that’s how hegemony works, everything for yourself. No matter at what costs, the others are going to pay the price. What I consider ironic, that all the American people (the not so rich part of it) gets out of that status is feeling good for being a superpower.

        Which is exactly what the population of the Soviet Union was granted from their government. And they are supporting a war to regain that status.

        I can’t wait to watch the American empire to go down.

  • sadreality@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    provoking retaliation

    wtf does this even mean? Russia is balls deep into ukraine destroying everything, short of nukes what else can they really do?

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The US should probably pass their lethal aid package if they want a seat at the table.

      • suoko@feddit.it
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        8 months ago

        And maybe start selling oil to Russia similar to what they did when they started selling gas to Europe during the last couple of years

  • plistig@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    warning that the drone strikes risk … provoking retaliation, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

    Yeah, Russia might even start a war with Ukraine if they didn’t stop! Could you imagine that?

  • LNRDrone@sopuli.xyz
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    8 months ago

    Fuck that noise. As much of the oil refineries and all other Russian production capacity as possible must be destroyed

    • nivenkos@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Ukraine still allows Russia to send gas through some of their pipelines. Trade is important.

      But yeah, the US should really help and pay back some of the huge benefits they’ve received. Biden could send US troops to Kyiv and Lviv tomorrow if he cared.

    • MxM111@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      I guess the point is that this might be counterproductive - the panic on the market may drive the oil price so that the overall it is positive to Russia’s war effort.

  • Don_alForno@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    warning that the drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices

    Good. Where are those sanctions on anyone buying Russian oil anyway? You didn’t hesitate when it was about trade with Iran.

    and provoking retaliation,

    From a country they are already in all out war with? What, so Russia was holding back until now? Only killing half the civilians and raping half the women they could have?

    Fuck these people complaining about oil prices when people are fighting for their lives. Disgusting!

  • pastermil@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    I’m definitely all for Biden being re-elected, but somebody got to tell him to shut the fuck up sometime.

  • nivenkos@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The only thing more dangerous than being the US’s enemy, is being their ally.

    The US reaps all the rewards from huge weapons and LNG exports, while refusing to send any troops or even further aid.

    They’re literally the only major economy with significant growth right now due to that, but offer nothing to help Ukraine or Europe.

    • Rusty Shackleford@programming.dev
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      8 months ago

      They’re literally the only major economy

      You don’t need the “literally”.

      offer nothing to help Ukraine or Europe.

      Bullshit. You could have performed a simple search about your claims before posting that.

      European Defense

      Ukraine Defense

      The Joe Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed about $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute. (This figure does not include all war-related U.S. spending, such as aid to allies.) The historic sums are helping a broad set of Ukrainian people and institutions, including refugees, law enforcement, and independent radio broadcasters, though most of the aid has been military-related. Dozens of other countries, including most members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), are also providing large aid packages to Ukraine.

      My country’s government is guilty of a lot of terrible things, but don’t make things up, like every other shit-heel on the internet these days.

  • Truck_kun@beehaw.org
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    8 months ago

    I’m curious how an oil refinery in Russia affects global oil prices in any significant way? I would imagine it would lower prices globally.

    Don’t refineries turn oil into fuel, like gasoline? To the best of my knowledge countries don’t typically export gasoline, do they? I thought they exported crude.

    Wouldn’t being unable to refine crude, mean they need to export more crude, since they can’t indefinitely store it, thus bring down oil prices? In the short-term, I wouldn’t be surprised at an increase in global price due to news media/speculation, but long term effect, I could only imagine global crude price going down.

    On the other hand, I would of course think local gas/fuel prices would skyrocket in Russia due to not being able to refine it.

    I’m sure I’m very much wrong in my logic; if someone on the internet wouldn’t mind correcting me with a proper explanation. Of course this is all based on refinery attacks, I didn’t read this specific article, but I am not aware of oil rigs/oil extraction sites being attacked (that would clearly be a separate situation if it is happening).

    • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      Oil prices in this case is a broad term. Countries that can refine crude prefer to do so, as it makes a lot of money. At the end of the day, the normal person at the gast station doesn’t care if the crude was cheaper or more expensive. They care about what they pay for gasoline.

      More specific to the infrastructure often the oil is directly delivered to the refinery and only the refined products make it onto the market at all. So by cutting off the refinery also the oil exploration that comes before is cut off from the market.

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Prices are determined based on supply and demand, so any event which decreases the global supply, even in sectors where most of the world was not being given market access, will drive the price up for everyone else.

      This is why Biden has been approving drilling projects left and right while transitioning America off the stuff, America’s prices are subsidized, but the world gets squeezed big time by supply fluctuations elsewhere, it’s basically a spooky action at a distance way to try and subsidize global prices to artificially keep them low same as America’s oil prices.

  • Pistcow@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Dont mess with my dino juice

    -America

    But for reals, that’s dumb ass hell.