 Russia rebuilt its military after suffering tremendous losses in Ukraine, U.S. official. Russia has been successful in rebuilding its military after suffering tremendous losses during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a U.S. official has claimed. According to Defense Post media outlet, speaking during an event hosted by the Center for a new American security, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell stated that they have been monitoring Moscow over the last few months to assess if it has regained its strength. He said invading forces have almost completely reconstituted, thanks to the significant surge in its defense spending since the war broke out in February 2022. The support of its closest allies in China, North Korea and Iran has also helped Russia endure economic and military setbacks in the last two years, Campbell stated. We've really seen the people's Republic of China start to help to rebuild Russia's defense industrial base, essentially backfilling the trade from European partners, he remarked. As of March 2024, Russia has likely suffered more than 350,000 casualties in Ukraine due to Kiev's heavy resistance according to a U.K. Ministry of Defense intelligence report. The average daily number of killed and wounded Russian soldiers currently stands at 983, the highest since the invasion began. Additionally, Moscow has reportedly lost 2,619 of the nearly 3,000 tanks it initially deployed to Ukraine. U.S. intelligence officials previously claimed the invading forces might need a decade to fully recover, considering the enormous losses it had sustained. But Campbell's latest assessment fuels speculation that Russia is recuperating faster than expected and on schedule for its alleged plan to attack a NATO member by 2026. Ukraine's security service and main directorate of intelligence under the Defense Ministry were behind the attack on Russian Nizhnykansk oil refinery in Tatarstan on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian media reported, with reference to unnamed sources within the intelligence department. A Ukrainian long-range drone hit the primary oil processing facility at the Nizhnykansk refinery, after which fire broke out there, according to the report. The capacity of this processing unit is 8 million tons of oil, which amounts to 2.6% of the total annual refining of the Russian Federation per year. In addition, this plant is among the five largest refineries in Russia. We continue to work systematically to ensure that Russia has fewer and fewer opportunities to finance the war of aggression against Ukraine. We will continue to cut off oxygen to the gas station country in order to minimize the flow of petrodollars to the military budget of the Russian Federation, the source told media. According to Baza, at least three people were injured at the refinery. This is the Taneco oil refinery in the city of Nizhnykansk in the Republic of Tatarstan. The region's governor confirmed the attack on the refinery, but in his statement, he did not specify the name of the refinery that was attacked. Russian media has confirmed that Nizhnykansk oil refinery was hit, while stressing that the technological process was not disrupted. The Russian media also claimed that drones allegedly attacked a hostel in a special economic zone of Alabuga, and that two people were injured during the attack. Ukraine in recent months has stepped up attacks on Russia's oil refiners in a bid to impact Kremlin's highly lucrative trade in refined products. Kiev believes its drone attacks on Russia, the world's second largest oil producer, are justified because Ukraine has suffered large-scale damage to its infrastructure from Russian airstrikes since the start of Russia's full-fledged invasion of the country in February 2022.