Ukraine carried out an intense drone attack against Russia this Sunday, the 28th, according to Russian authorities. The offensive set fire to a major oil refinery in the south of the country and killed at least two people.
The long-range and large-scale attacks conducted by Kiev have affected Russian fuel supplies and military logistics. According to Ukrainian officials, the objective is to increase pressure on the Kremlin to bring it to a negotiating table.
Debris from downed Ukrainian drones caused a fire at the refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani, a city in Russia’s Krasnodar region, east of occupied Crimea, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.
Falling debris killed one person in Slavyansk and injured another in a nearby village, according to regional authorities. Photos and videos circulating on Russian social media show a dense cloud of smoke over what users said was the Slavyansk refinery. The Associated Press news agency has not yet been able to verify the authenticity of the images.
Ukrainian President Volodmir Zelensky claimed that Ukraine was behind the attack on Slavyansk. He also said that a second Russian refinery, in the Yaroslavl region, about 700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was also hit during the night attacks.
“Tonight, our ‘far-reaching sanctions’ hit two oil refineries in Russia,” Zelenskiy wrote on the messaging app Telegram. “Each (attack) means a reduction in the resources that feed the Russian war machine and another step towards peace.”
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In recent months, Ukraine has greatly intensified its long-range attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, with the aim of reducing Moscow’s money to finance the invasion – which has been going on for almost five years – and making the Russians feel the consequences.
According to Western officials, the campaign helped slow Moscow’s advances on the battlefield and increased pressure on the Kremlin.
The Slavyansk refinery is one of the main refineries in southern Russia and processes around 4 million tons of crude oil per year, according to the operator’s website. It is also an important source of petroleum products destined for export through Russian Black Sea ports, including fuel oil, naphtha and marine fuel.
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So far, Russian authorities have not released information about the Ukrainian attack on the refinery in the Yaroslavl region. Local governor Mikhail Evraev reported on Sunday morning that some roads between Moscow and the region’s capital, Yaroslavl, were temporarily closed due to an “enemy attack with Ukrainian drones.”
Yaroslavl airport also closed briefly at night, as did others in southern and western Russia, according to the country’s civil aviation agency. In another incident, Ukrainian drone strikes killed one person and injured another in the Russian border region of Belgorod, acting governor Alexander Shuvayev said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 213 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over Russia, occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov Seas.
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At the other end, Russia attacked Ukraine with 142 long-range attack drones and eight missiles overnight, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Of these, 125 drones and seven missiles were shot down, the Air Force said.
