Hello and welcome to Battleground Ukraine with me, Roger Morehouse and Patrick Bishop.

In a moment we'll hear from Patrick interviewing Julian Evans about his book, Undefeatable, Odessa in Love and War, which appears in paperback next week.

But first, let's have a roundup of the latest news from the battlefield and beyond.

First of all, an update on Ukraine's strikes against Russian oil infrastructure in the Baltic region this last week.

You will recall that we mentioned in last week's pod, Ukraine's strike against the oil export terminal at Primorsk on the Baltic north of St Petersburg,

a terminal that ordinarily is responsible for the export of over a million barrels of oil per day.

Well, that attack, far from being a one-off, proved to be at the prelude to a concerted offensive

against the region's oil infrastructure, with the export terminal Ust Luga and the refinery at Kirishi

both being hit.

In fact, all three were hit repeatedly over the last week, with

Ust Luga being hit five times in ten days, and Primorsk also being targeted, leaving fires

burning out of control at all three sites for days on end and causing smoke plumes to spread

hundreds of miles into Russia. All of this is not only symbolic, of course.

It has real-world consequences for Russia.

Now, we've talked here, Patrick, about the boon that Russia was supposed to be enjoying

from the leap in the oil price that has resulted from President Trump's adventure in the Persian Gulf.

The oil price, key to Russia's fighting potential, stood at around $80 per barrel before the attack on Iran,

above Putin's break-even figure, and has since jumped to over $100 per barrel, thanks to the chaos in the Middle East.

At that new price, Putin was making an estimated $750 million per day from his oil exports,

but the attacks on the Baltic infrastructure, which previously handled around 40% of the Russian export capacity,

has dented that significantly, reducing that income, according to some experts, by some $300 million

per day as long as the port facilities are out of service, and more than wiping out the financial

...