Mike Baker

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Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin.

The Caspian Sea isn't a place that we usually associate with the war in Ukraine.

It sits far from the front lines, far from the daily artillery exchanges and drone battles that have come to define much of this conflict.

And from Moscow, that distance is long translated into safety, territory out of reach and not impacted by Putin's invasion.

But that assumption is starting to collapse.

In recent days, Ukrainian forces carried out strikes against multiple Russian oil platforms in the Caspian Sea, facilities operated by Lukoil and tied directly to Russia's energy production and logistics network, a deliberate effort to disrupt Russia's ability to fuel both its economy and its military.

Ukraine struck a Russian Caspian oil platform for the first time back in December.

When we reported on that strike, it was notable precisely because it was unprecedented.

A single strike deepened what Moscow considered a secure energy zone.

Now, weeks later, Ukrainian special forces are reportedly hitting multiple platforms in the same region.

What matters here, of course, is geography.

The Caspian Sea is hundreds of miles from Ukrainian territory.

It's not adjacent to contested zones.

It's an area Russia has basically treated as insulated from the war, a place where energy production could continue largely uninterrupted, feeding both export revenue and domestic fuel needs.

These platforms aren't just oil rigs.