Ukraine drones hit Russian pipeline, refinery and depot
Ukrainian drones have hit targets in several regions of Russia, including an oil pipeline pumping station, a refinery and a fuel depot, Russian and Ukrainian officials said, in a escalating campaign of attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, often within hundreds of kilometers.
The Saratov oil refinery on the Volga river was hit, causing a huge fire, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
Saratov regional governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram that “civilian infrastructure” was damaged in the attack but did not provide further details.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, “During the night, our soldiers imposed Ukraine’s long-term sanctions on an oil refinery in Saratov, Russia. This place is about 700 kilometers away from the front line.” he said.
Not all of the drones hit their targets.
The Russian defense ministry announced that 216 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down overnight.
Ukraine said it also hit the Lazarevo pumping station in the Kirov region, northeast of Moscow and about 1,300 km from Ukrainian-held territory, serving the Surgut-Gorky-Polotsk pipeline that carries Russian oil from Siberia to Belarus.
Kirov region governor Alexander Sokolov said that unmanned aerial vehicles hit a facility in the region, but did not provide further information.
Officials in the town of Matveyev Kurgan in Ukraine’s Rostov region on the Donbas border, which has been the focal point of the war that has been going on for more than four years, said a large fire broke out after drones hit a fuel depot in the town adjacent to the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region.
Ukraine confirmed the strike.
The governors of the Voronezh and Belgorod regions, both bordering Ukraine, also reported damage and three civilians were injured in Belgorod.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Kremlin-backed governor of the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula, said authorities have imposed restrictions on oil sales.
He did not say why, but Ukraine has been attacking fuel infrastructure in southwestern Russia near Crimea for months.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 229 drones overnight, 212 of which were shot down over northern and eastern Ukraine.
Russia accused Ukraine of hitting the garage of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in occupied Ukrainian territory on Sunday.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry denied yesterday a separate accusation that the facility was attacked, an allegation that Ukraine also denied.
The United Nations nuclear energy watchdog, which has inspectors at the Russian-occupied and managed facility, said Sunday that its team observed damage caused by drones at the turbine building on Saturday, but did not specify whose drones.
It was stated that radiation levels in the region remained normal.
