When US President Donald Trump launched a 100-day effort to end the war in Ukraine, Kyiv's long-range weapons were destroying the heart of Russia's war effort – its oil depots, arsenals and factories.
Trump took the oath of office on Monday, saying that success can be measured “not only by the wars we win, but also by the wars we end and, more importantly, the wars we don't enter”.
That was a reference to his oft-stated belief that the administration that succeeded him, former US President Joe Biden, was wrong to allow the war in Ukraine to begin, and his vow to end it quickly.
Trump's special envoy, retired American General Keith Kellogg, has set himself a 100-day challenge to end the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held an unprecedented meeting of the National Security Council on the day of Trump's inauguration, reiterating his willingness to join the talks. He said that the solution to this problem must be to remove the causes of war – referring to the expansion of NATO in the east.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, said on Wednesday that the Trump administration had offered to cooperate.
“Compared to the skepticism under the former US president, today, there is less opportunity,” he said at an academic conference in Moscow.
While these high-level political events were taking place, Ukraine was destroying Russia's air defenses and incinerating some of the enemy's combat capabilities.
The disarmament campaign was weakening the Russian military, Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskii said.
“For several months now, the use of military equipment by the Russian military has been reduced by half,” he told TSN, a Ukrainian television station.
“If in the past this number reached 40,000 per day, now it is much lower.
“These strikes reduce the ability of the Russian military to continue fighting,” he added.
In the last week, Ukraine won several rounds.
Ukraine's General Staff said three of its drones hit the Liskinskaya oil storage facility in Russia's Voronezh region, bursting into flames on January 16.
They said: “The depot supplies fuel to the Russian army.”
Geolocated images show the locations of metal measurements on that day.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Counting Disinformation, said drones also hit the Tambov Gunpowder plant in Kuzmino-Gat. The plant makes gunpowder and nitrocellulose for use in rocket engines, gun shells and other systems, he said.
On Saturday, Ukraine's General Staff said Kyiv drones had hit an oil storage facility in Russia's Tula region, setting it on fire.
The facility supplied Russian military equipment, the officials said. Ukrainian drones also struck a Rosneft oil depot in the Kaluga region that supplies the military.
On the same day, vandals set fire to a locomotive in St Petersburg, causing damage, said the Defense Intelligence Service (GUR) of Ukraine. The engine was used to transport ammunition, GUR said.
Ukraine has been sending ground troops into its rear-enemy camp to destroy Russian weapons.
On the day of Trump's inauguration, Kovalenko said, Ukrainian drones struck the Gorbunov aircraft factory in Kazan.
It is part of the Tupolev United Aircraft Corporation, which manufactures and maintains the Tu-160 bomber, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
Geolocated images showed a direct hit to the oil tanks at the factory.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's General Staff said its drones hit the Liskinskaya oil refinery for the second time in a week.
“Tanks with oil and fuel, which the residents give to the Russian army, are on fire,” he said.
They also hit the Smolensk Aviation Plant, “where fighter jets are being modernized and manufactured,” the workers said.
Geolocated images showed the fire at the site.
Kovalenko said the plant builds Sukhoi Su-25 bombers, which are used to drop bombs on Ukraine's front lines.
War on land
Russia continued to attack Ukrainian forces in the past week, and on Friday succeeded after a year of operation in capturing the village of Vremivka, which is located on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border in eastern Ukraine.
Vremivka is adjacent to Velyka Novosilka, which Ukraine annexed in 2023.
Russia has been eager to regain this position because it provides a good place to disrupt Ukraine's supply and communications channels in Donetsk.
A Ukrainian police officer said the Russians have a three-digit number in the area, showing what Russia is doing.
Russia also appeared to be planning a major new push to capture Pokrovsk, in Donetsk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine's push into Kursk has diverted 60,000 highly skilled personnel from Russia to defend Russia.
But now, Russia has been gathering districts south of Pokrovsk, said Konstantin Mashovets, a retired Ukrainian soldier and military expert, including four districts of four divisions and three divisions.
The combination of different groups may indicate that Russia is making more efforts to develop these forces.
“Now south of Pokrovsk there is a foreign army of the enemy, which is a kind of mixed forces with two armies at once,” said Mashovets.
“Thanks to all these methods, by focusing on his battle formations and formations on the narrowest part of the front line, the enemy has received and now has the power to win.”
Major Victor Tregubov, the spokesman for the Khortytsia group defending Pokrovsk, said that the Russian army is trying to destroy the city because they do not have the strength to deal with it.
“To do this, they have to go to the west of the city, which is what they are trying to do,” Tregubov told the television station.
Syrskii said on the Internet that the best Russian units were concentrated in Pokrovsk, which shows that this was a Russian priority.
He also revised previous estimates of Russian casualties last yearstating that 434,000 Moscow soldiers were killed or wounded in 2024, and about 150,000 were killed.
