Ukraine says it has hit a major Russian oil refinery with long-range drones

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian drones struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd region for the second time in almost three months, Ukraine’s general staff said Thursday. Russian officials did not confirm the attack, although the local governor said drones started a fire at an unspecified industrial facility in the region.

Ukraine’s general staff said in a statement that the attack took place the previous day. The refinery is the largest producer of fuel and lubricants in Russia’s Southern Federal District, processing more than 15 million tons of crude annually — about 5.6% of the country’s total refining capacity, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure as U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war make no impact on the battlefield.

Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said foreign countries are helping Kyiv in its efforts to keep the power grid operating amid Russia’s onslaught.

“Practically every day, our power engineers, repair brigades, and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are carrying out restorations on-site after attacks: hits keep occurring across various points, especially in our communities, and especially near the Russian border and close to the front,” Zelenskyy said late Wednesday.

Also, saboteurs inside Russia burned dozens of locomotives in a bid to hamper the logistics of Russia’s armed forces, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday.

The Freedom of Russia group used Molotov cocktails to set fire to the control and power supply systems of dozens of locomotives that transported military cargo, according to a statement from GUR, as the intelligence agency is known.

It was not possible to independently verify the claim, nor did the statement say whether the GUR was involved in the operation. Russian officials offered no immediate comment.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has attempted to strike targets on Russian soil with domestically developed long-range drones.

Ukrainian forces also struck three fuel lubricants facilities in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula and a storage and assembly base for Russia’s Shahed drones in an occupied area of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the general staff statement said.

In the Kostroma region northeast of Moscow, a Ukrainian aerial attack hit unidentified “energy infrastructure facilities,” Gov. Sergei Sitnikov said. There were no casualties and power supplies were not disrupted, he said.

Unconfirmed media reports said the attack targeted a hydroelectric power plant in the Kostroma region, one of the biggest in Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday its air defenses shot down 75 drones overnight over multiple Russian regions and annexed Crimea.

Russia, meantime, attacked the city of Kamianske in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region with drones overnight, killing one person and injuring eight others, the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said on his official Telegram channel.

Several fires broke out and the roof of a four-story building was partially destroyed, he said.

The Russian military also continued its assault on Ukraine’s rail infrastructure, causing delays and route changes in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk and in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine’s state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 135 drones of various types overnight on Thursday, Ukraine’s air force said.

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