Ukraine says it hit a key fuel pipeline near Moscow that supplies Russian forces
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces hit a key fuel pipeline in the Moscow region that supplies the Russian military, Ukrainian military intelligence said Saturday. continuous Russian campaign huge drone and missile Attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
According to the statement made on the Telegram messaging channel, the operation was carried out late on Friday. The institution, known by its acronym HUR, described the incident as a “serious blow” to Russia’s military logistics.
HUR said its forces hit the Koltsevoy pipeline, which stretches 400 kilometers (250 miles) and supplies the Russian military with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.
HUR said that three fuel lines were also destroyed in the operation targeting infrastructure near the Ramensky district.
HUR stated that the pipeline has the capacity to transport up to 3 million tons of jet fuel, 2.8 million tons of diesel and 1.6 million tons of gasoline annually.
“Our attacks have been more effective than the sanctions,” said HUR president Kyrylo Budanov, referring to international sanctions imposed on Russia for its all-out war and invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow scrambles to take key eastern city
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry claimed on Saturday that its forces had defeated a team of Ukrainian special forces sent to Pokrovsk, a hotspot on the eastern front, in an attempt to prevent Russian troops from advancing further into the city.
Russia and Ukraine offered conflicting accounts of what happened. PokrovskAn important stronghold of Ukraine in the Eastern Donetsk region. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed last week that his forces had surrounded the city’s Ukrainian defenders.
But Hryhorii Shapoval, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces, told The Associated Press last week that the situation in Pokrovsk was “difficult but under control.” On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that some Russian troops had infiltrated the city but insisted Ukraine was weeding them out.
Kiev did not immediately comment on the Russian defense ministry’s latest claim. But Zelenskyy said last week that Russia had deployed about 170,000 troops to Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Pokrovsk is located, as part of a major operation to capture the city. and claim a great battlefield victory.
Putin is trying to convince the USA, which wants him to sign a peace agreement, that Ukraine cannot survive against Russia’s military superiority. He also emphasized that Russia’s nuclear capacity has increased. refuses to compromise on what he says are his country’s legitimate war aims.
One of Moscow’s main goals was to capture the entire Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial center, consisting of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Kyiv still controls about a tenth of the coal-rich region.
One civilian died and 15 more were injured in Russia’s night attacks
One civilian was killed and 15 people were injured when Russia hit southern Ukraine with a ballistic missile on Saturday morning, local official Vitaliy Kim said. A child is among those injured in the strike on the Mykolaiv region, he said and added that Russia used an Iskander missile.
Another Russian attack early Saturday sparked a fire at a gas plant in the central Poltava region, Ukraine’s emergency service reported.
The latest attacks come as Russia continues massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Attacks that impose power outages and restrictions Earlier this week, an incident that Kiev described as “systematic energy terrorism” took place across Ukraine.
By Saturday, Moscow had launched 223 drones into Ukraine, of which 206 were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force. 17 of them hit targets in seven regions of Ukraine, the air force said, without providing details.
Russia also hit an agricultural enterprise in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, wounding a 66-year-old woman, according to a Telegram update by regional government official Viacheslav Chaus.
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