Ukraine must continue to strike Russian oil refineries.
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Foreign Affairs writes that the White House’s concerns about rising world oil prices are misplaced.
The attacks on the refineries destroyed about 14% of Russia’s oil refining capacity and forced the government to impose a ban on gasoline exports. But the Biden administration has criticized the strikes.
The publication writes that in fact, these attacks reduce Russia’s ability to turn oil into usable products, but do not affect the amount of oil the country can produce or export.
In fact, with less domestic refining capacity, the Russian Federation will be forced to export more crude oil, not less, which will cause world prices to fall rather than rise. And Russian firms have already begun to sell more unrefined oil abroad. As long as the attacks are limited to refineries, they are unlikely to raise oil prices for Western consumers.
But they could cause pain inside Russia, where prices for petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel have begun to soar. The strikes achieve the same goals that Ukraine’s Western partners set for themselves but failed to achieve with sanctions: weaken Russia’s financial and logistical ability to fight a war while limiting damage to the global economy.
Foreign Affairs writes that to reduce risks, the United States should neither help Ukraine continue these attacks, nor even publicly encourage them. But the White House should not abandon Ukraine’s course of attacks on oil refineries.
The shocks affect Russia’s ability to turn crude oil into fuel, but crude oil exports increase, leading to lower global prices.
Refinery repairs could take years, and within Russia prices for petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel have already begun to rise sharply.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.