Kyiv’s military announced that Ukrainian long-range attack drones attacked four Russian oil refineries, radar stations and other military targets in Russia in a major attack on Friday.
Ukraine has increased its use of drones to launch attacks against Russian oil facilities this year as it considers such facilities as legitimate military targets that are supplying Russian troops involved in their almost 28-month-old invasion.
The Ukrainian army stated on Telegram messenger that “Unmanned aerial vehicles attacked the Afipsky, Ilsky, Krasnodar, and Astrakhan oil refineries.”
Russia’s military had claimed previously about downing 70 drones over the Black Sea and Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula, 43 drones located over Russia’s Krasnodar region and one more over Russia’s Volgograd region.
According to a source from Kyiv intelligence contacted by Reuters, the Afipsky, Ilsky and Krasnodar oil refineries produce fuel for Russia’s Black Sea fleet while the SBU security service participated in a joint drone operation aimed at them.
“The damage done at these refineries will strongly affect the logistics of fuel oil supply making it costlier and time consuming since it will have to come from other refineries,” an intelligence source said.
The statement did not say exactly what those sites were or where they were located but the Ukrainian army claimed to have targeted radar stations and electronic intelligence centers both in Bryansk region and occupied Crimea.
Also hit were drone storage and launch sites as well as command control centres in Russia’s Krasnodar region which had confirmed explosions & fires occurred there at those objects
According to our sources, who declined being named because he is not authorized to speaking media: “these training centers serve as bases for launching drone attacks on Ukraine by Russia. The location of such centers is known: Yeisk town”.
In its statement today however, The Ukranian Military also said Thursday’s drone attacks on fuel depots in the Russian regions of Tambov and Adygeya were its work.
Russia carried out several air strikes on Ukrainian power stations that caused blackouts as winter approaches, resulting in concerns over the stability of the grid.
Since March, Russia’s strikes on the power grid have left Ukraine with a significant loss of energy generation capacity. Some of these attacks are said to be in response to Ukrainian assaults against the Russians.
