MOSCOW, July 8 (Reuters) – Ukrainian drones overnight struck three Russian oil refineries as well as Russian tankers on the Sea of Azov, the Ukrainian military and Russian local officials said on Wednesday, as Kyiv’s campaign against Russian energy infrastructure rages on.
Russia has been suffering from acute fuel shortages in some regions, as Ukrainian drone strikes against its oil refineries have ramped up, with Kyiv hitting targets ever further from its own territory.
Kyiv on Monday hit the Omsk refinery, Russia’s largest, which is located deep inside Siberia, around 2,700 km (1,700 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory.
In separate statements, Ukraine’s general staff and special forces said drones had hit the TANECO and TAIF-NK oil refineries in Tatarstan’s Nizhnekamsk, the Saratov oil refinery, and the Borisoglebsk military airbase in Voronezh region.
Russian officials confirmed strikes in those regions, though they did not specify what had been targeted. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had downed 415 drones overnight.
The degree of damage inflicted by the strikes was not immediately clear.
ADVANCED REFINERY HIT
Authorities in Tatarstan, which is around 1,400 km (870 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory, were cited by local media as saying that a number of people had been injured in the strikes on Nizhnekamsk.
Nizhnekamsk’s TANECO refinery is one of Russia’s most technologically advanced refineries, equipped with hydrocracking, catalytic cracking, and delayed coking units.
According to industry data, TANECO processed 17.0 million tons of crude oil in 2024, while TAIF-NK processed 6.6 million metric tons (132,000 barrels per day) of crude oil that year.
Saratov region Governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram that one person had been killed and several injured in a strike that damaged what he called “civilian industrial sites”.
The Saratov refinery is one of Russia’s largest and oldest, and has come under repeated attack from Ukraine in recent years.
Voronezh’s Governor Alexander Gusev likewise confirmed a Ukrainian strike, saying that a fire had broken out at an “infrastructure object” in the region.
Kyiv also said it had struck nine oil tankers in the Sea of Azov, a key supply route for Russian forces in Crimea and other Russian-controlled parts of southern Ukraine.
Rostov region Governor Yury Slyusar said on Telegram that two people had been injured in the strikes, but that only two tankers, which he said were empty, had been struck.
Russia’s Gazprom also said drones had attacked the Krasnodarskaya pumping station, which helps send gas to Turkey via the Blue Stream pipeline, but that exports had not been affected.
Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war, now in its fifth year, causing widespread power outages and wintertime heating shortages.
Russia fired ballistic missiles at Kyiv overnight, its third attack in less than a week, killing at least one person.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Aidan Lewis)
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