Ukraine strikes far inside Russia as Putin general assassinated & US warns Europe

It's been a bruising week for Ukraine.

I was in Kyiv just a few days ago.

There have been some massive strikes, but we're going to start with the good news from Ukraine's point of view.

They continue their spectacular campaign of long range strikes.

There have been at least three successful hits on Russian oil refineries, five on Russian wild berries, logistics plants and one strike on a strategic airfield home to Russian nuclear capable bombers.

Let's start with those strikes on the oil refineries.

Overnight, on the 1st to the 2nd of August, the refinery, the Rosneft refinery in Saratov, some 400 miles inside Russian territory, was struck.

That has a capacity to refine 4.8 million tonnes of crude oil per year.

Then on the 5th and the 6th, those nights, two consecutive nights, the Slavneft-Yanos refinery in Yaroslavl, that's about 500 miles inside Russian territory, that was struck.

Much bigger refinery that can refine about 15 million tons of crude oil per year.

And then on that second night, the 5th, the night of the 5th into the 6th, a smaller plant in Bashneft, the Bashneft plant in Ufa, That's in Bakhortostan was hit.

But that's staggering.

That's over 850 miles inside Russian territory.

This, as those of you who watch this regularly will know, is part of Ukraine's campaign to degrade the Kremlin's coffers, the war chest, the income, the money that Vladimir Putin needs to fuel his bloodbath conflict in Ukraine.

The same night as one of those oil strikes, we also saw a hit on the Engels II air base.

That's also in Saratov.

That is a base which is home to Russia's long range nuclear capable bombers.

But these bombers are also routinely used in this conflict.

to launch devastating conventional weapons at Ukraine.

The two types of aircraft primarily are the Tu-160 jets, Tupolev 160.

They are jet powered.

They have swept back wings, long range bombers.

And then the iconic Tupolev Tu-95s.

They have four turboprops, long range bombers, which the same sort of aircraft we often see flying out of northern Russia and buzzing the sort of NATO airspace or NATO area of responsibility north of Norway and the United Kingdom.

And the wild berries plants.