Ukrainian drones strike Russia’s Syzran oil refinery, Kyiv says

May 21 (Reuters) – Ukrainian drones hit Rosneft’s Syzran oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region overnight, the Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.

“Ukraine has another long-term sanction against the Russian oil refinery and we are continuing this line of action,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.

“This time it was the Syzran oil refinery; more than 800 kilometers from our border.”

Zelenskiy published images of fire and smoke rising into the sky.

The local governor said two people were killed in a drone attack on the town of Syzran in the Samara region, without mentioning whether any infrastructure was damaged in the attack.

Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces said the attack caused a major fire at the refinery, whose annual processing capacity ranges from 7 to 8.9 million tons of crude oil.

Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukrainian drones, said this was the 11th Russian oil refinery targeted by Ukraine in May.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Tomasz Janowski)