Ukraine has stepped up drone strikes on oil refineries deep inside Russia, in what officials depict as an intensifying effort to hit the country’s economy.
In the second consecutive day of assaults on Russian energy infrastructure, explosions were confirmed on sites in the country’s heartlands such as Ryazan, Kstovo and Kirishi.
The damaged facilities, which are all hundreds of kilometres away from the border with Ukraine, account for about 10 per cent of Russia’s total oil processing capacity.
A Ukrainian official with knowledge of the attacks said the state security service used drones overnight in “a series of special operations against enemy oil refineries”.
The official added that Ukraine was “systematically implementing a detailed strategy . . . to deprive the enemy of resources and reduce the flow of oil money and fuel”.
Kyiv and Moscow have both stepped up drone attacks in recent months as Ukrainian forces struggle to repel their better-armed Russian foes on the battlefield.
The targeting of oil refineries comes amid growing frustration in Ukraine with the hesitant approach western powers have taken to targeting Moscow’s energy revenues.
While the G7 and the EU have tried to limit how much Russia can sell its oil for, they have also sought to keep Russian barrels on the market to avoid a price spike ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Earlier this month, Russia implemented a ban on petrol exports in an effort to keep prices stable amid rising demand.
The Russian defence ministry claimed on Wednesday to have shot down more than 60 Ukrainian drones.
But videos posted on Russian social media showed several Ukrainian drones bypassing air defences and causing explosions.
Another Ukrainian official said Wednesday’s attack had caused “quite significant” damage on the targeted refineries.
One video showed flames and a huge plume of black smoke rising from the Ryazan oil refinery south-east of Moscow. Pavel Malkov, governor of the Ryazan region, said there were injuries but did not elaborate.
Ukrainian security forces also launched drone strikes on Wednesday against a Russian air force base in Buturlinovka and a military airfield in Voronezh, both about 200km from the Ukrainian border.
The previous day Ukraine had launched a wave of drone strikes against energy sites and oil refineries in at least seven Russian regions.
Ukraine-backed Russian paramilitary units opposed to President Vladimir Putin’s regime also launched cross-border incursions with tanks and armoured vehicles into Belgorod and Kursk regions on Tuesday.
Putin said in an interview with state media on Wednesday that the incursions and attacks were meant in part to disrupt presidential elections set for March 15 to 17.
“The main goal, I have no doubt about it, is to — if not to disrupt the presidential elections in Russia — then at least somehow interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of citizens,” he told the state-run RIA news agency and Rossiya-1 channel.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was responding to Russian aggression.
“We will inflict losses on the Russian state in response — quite rightly,” he said in an evening address on Tuesday. “Those in the Kremlin must get used to the fact that terror does not go unpunished for them.”
Russian missiles and attack drones, including Shahed drones made by Iran and supplied to Moscow for its war effort, often target Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.
A Russian missile strike on Tuesday morning destroyed an apartment building in Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, in southern Ukraine, killing three people and injuring 30 more.
A Shahed drone attack on Wednesday morning also crushed an apartment building in Sumy, northern Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said there were deaths and injuries but did not clarify how many.
At least four of 32 Russia’s major refineries have been attacked since the beginning of 2024. Some of them, including the Rosneft plant in Tuapse on the Black Sea coast that was attacked in January, have had to cease operations.
The first string of Ukrainian drone strikes in January reduced Russian refinery production by 400 thousand barrels a day, from 5.6mn in early 2024 to 5.2mn barrels a day by early February, said Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler.
Since then, production has risen again, but together with the recent attacks, the proportion of temporarily halted capacity could reach up to 14 per cent of Russia’s total refinery output, he added.
“Surprisingly, Russia cannot counter such a relatively simple weapon as drones,” said Sergey Vakulenko, a former strategy director for Gazprom Neft and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Since the first wave of attacks, it was clear that Ukraine identified refineries as targets — but [Russia] did not attempt or were unable to prepare for the second one,” he added.
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