Ukrainian drones struck two oil depots and an oil refinery across Russia within 24 hours, including one deep in Russian territory, officials from both sides said on Thursday. Activity Designed to hinder the country’s military operations and put pressure on its most important industries.
Radi Khabirov, the head of Russia’s Bashkiria region near Kazakhstan, said a drone struck the area. Petronas Sarawat RefineryOne of the country’s largest fires was sending plumes of smoke billowing into the sky at noon on Thursday. The facility is more than 700 miles from the Ukrainian border, a sign of Ukraine’s growing ability to further attack Russia.
An official from Ukraine’s special forces, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military issue, said Ukraine was behind the attack. The official said Ukraine was also responsible for two other overnight drone attacks on oil depots in Russia’s Krasnodar region in southeastern Ukraine.
There have been about 20 similar attacks since the beginning of this year. Military analysts say Ukraine is seeking to disrupt Russian military logistics and combat operations by attacking facilities that fuel its tanks, ships and aircraft.
Kiev’s rationale for launching these attacks seems to be that by disrupting Russian military logistics, it can buy time for the Ukrainian army on the battlefield, which is numerically inferior, inadequately armed and is losing ground to the Russian army.
In recent months, Ukraine Increasing reliance on asymmetric strategies Operations to disrupt Russia include sabotage targeting rail infrastructure and ammunition depots.
“It is well known that a large military like Russia’s with a lot of equipment consumes a lot of fuel,” said Serhiy Kuzan, president of the Center for Security and Cooperation in Ukraine, an independent research group.
“So the strategy here is very simple: create a fuel shortage,” he said, with the long-term goal of attacking refineries and the short-term target of oil depots.
The two oil depots attacked on Thursday in the Krasnodar region are located near Novorossiysk, Russia’s main port and home to parts of the Black Sea Fleet. They are also close to the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, where the Russian military stores fuel and ammunition and delivers it to the battlefield in southern Ukraine.
Russian local authorities It was confirmed that several drones landed on oil depots, causing fires and damaging several tanks.
Russian state news agency TASS Thursday blamed Ukraine for recent attacks on oil facilities.
Russia has carried out larger-scale attacks on Ukraine’s logistics lines and energy systems, and carried out ruthless attacks on power facilities and transportation infrastructure. Wednesday, Russian missiles and drones damaged Several power plants across Ukraine were damaged as part of a concerted effort to weaken Ukraine’s energy grid and deepen civilian suffering, officials said.
Ukraine’s state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia has reported a number of attacks on its railways in recent weeks, including Wednesday’s attack on Kherson train station in the south.
On Thursday, Ukrainian state power company Ukrenergo explain Industrial businesses will have limited electricity use for the second night in a row due to damage caused by the latest attacks.
Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries appear to be about more than immediate military objectives. Experts say they also appear to be aimed at putting pressure on the Russian economy.
Damien Ernst, an energy expert and professor at the University of Liege in Belgium, said that the strike More than 10% of Russia’s refining capacity has been shut down, Temporarily reducing the country’s ability to convert crude oil into usable products such as gasoline, diesel and gasoline.
“There are shortages of diesel and gasoline in some areas and prices are rising,” Mr Ernst said. But he added that Russia’s pre-war refining capacity was about twice domestic consumption, meaning gasoline shortages at Russian service stations were still a long way off.
Still, Russia increased gasoline imports from neighboring Belarus in March, According to Reutersand imposed a six-month ban on gasoline exports in March.
Ernst added that the strike has not had a major impact on international crude prices, as the U.S. government had feared, because Russia is now exporting more crude oil, including large quantities to India, to make up for the loss of refining capacity and because the current international There is a glut of crude oil on the market.
write on Foreign affairsThree energy and military analysts said on Wednesday that the attack “could still cause pain within Russia” without affecting the economies of Kyiv’s Western partners.
Maria Valennikova Contributed reporting.
