Ukrainian drones targeted a Russian oil refinery hundreds of kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the latest in a campaign of deep strikes aimed at disrupting Russia’s oil industry.
The May 31 overnight attacks on the facility in the central Saratov region — the second since March — did not appear to have caused any casualties.
But a large fire and thick black smoke were reported at the plant belonging to the state-owned oil company Rosneft.
Ukraine’s military said its drones targeted the Saratov refinery, along with several other locations across Russia.
Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said “civilian infrastructure” was hit, but did not specify what exactly.
Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has markedly stepped up its drone campaign on Russian oil and gas facilities across the country.
The effort appears aimed at curtailing Russia’s ability to export hydrocarbons and garner revenues to fund its all-out war on Ukraine.
Russia has benefited from the spike in global energy prices caused by the US-and-Israeli war against Iran.
Ukraine’s efforts, which have also targeted pipelines and storage facilities, have forced a halt or reduction in production at virtually all major oil refineries in central Russia. This has dramatically cut Russia’s oil output, according to estimates by Reuters.
Separately, the head of the Russian state atomic company Rosatom, Aleksei Likhachev, claimed that a Ukrainian drone detonated near the turbine building of one of the six nuclear reactors at the Zaporizhzhya plant– Ukraine’s largest.
Ukraine’s military rejected the claim as part of Russia’s disinformation campaign designed to deflect from its own war crimes and losses.
The Zaporizhzhya plant is the largest nuclear facility in Europe, but has been brought to a cold shutdown since 2022 when the Russian military occupied part of the region and the plant, forcing the local staff to manage the station under their command.
Kyiv has accused Russia of sabotaging the plant numerous times since as an effort to frame Ukraine .
The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been trying to ensure the safety of the plant.
The agency the reported drone strike, but did not blame either Ukraine or Russia. The agency pointed out that “this would be the first drone attack within the… site perimeter since April 2024.”
