Ukraine’s General Staff said it made a successful drone strike early Sunday on a major refinery in the Saratov region, the latest in a series of attacks this month on Russian oil facilities.
Earlier, the regional governor announced that UAVS from Ukraine hit an unspecified “industrial enterprise” in the region, about 530 miles (850 km) southeast of Moscow.
The drone activity also caused temporary flight delays at a local airport and at least one person was killed when drone debris fell in a residential area, the governor said.
Videos posted on Russian social media showed flames and clouds of black smoke in the area of what was said to be the Rosneft PJSC-operated refinery.
The incident can’t be independently verified, and Rosneft didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on Sunday sent via WhatsApp.
Later on Sunday, another drone reached a refinery owned by Lukoil PJSC in the Komi region, about 960 miles (1,547 km) northeast of Moscow, according to a Ukrainian military intelligence official. Local authorities didn’t confirm the strike but reported an evacuation of workers of some enterprises because of a drone attack. Lukoil didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. The refinery has processing capacity of over 80,000 barrels a day.
Russia also regularly targets energy infrastructure in Ukraine. On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, condemned Russia’s targeted air strikes on the oil depot belonging to the Azerbaijani company SOCAR. They also blasted the Kremlin for an attack on a gas compressor station transporting Azerbaijani gas to Ukraine, according to a statement from Aliyev’s office published on his website.
Russia hit the city of Zaporizhzhia with bombs being dropped on residential buildings, its main bus terminal and one of the clinics, Zelenskiy said in a post on X Sunday. He said that there were casualties, but didn’t provided an exact number.
With the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine almost halfway through a fourth year, Kyiv’s forces have recently stepped up hits on Russia’s energy infrastructure in a move to curtail Moscow’s ability to send fuel to the front lines and derive revenue from oil sales.
A week ago, Ukraine said it hit the the Ryazan refinery, with a processing capacity of about 340,000 barrels of crude a day, and the Novokuibyshevsk plant in the Samara region, which has a design processing capacity of over 177,000 barrels a day.
The Ryazan facility, one of the country’s largest, has significantly reduced oil intake since Aug. 2, when Ukrainian drones attacked the plant, Bloomberg reported.
The Saratov refinery has a design processing capacity of about 140,000 barrels of crude a day.
Russia’s defense ministry reported intercepting 121 Ukrainian drones overnight, taking the total in the previous 24 hours to about 372 drones as well as other projectiles including Neptune guided long-range missiles.
Ukraine said it shot down 70 of some 100 Russian drones launched overnight. Two people were killed in a Russian attack in the Kherson region, Ukraine said.
The latest exchange of fire comes days ahead of a planned meeting in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at brokering an agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine won’t cede territory to Russia to end the war, and was backed by European leaders pledging continued support for Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Top Zelenskiy aide Andriy Yermak said Sunday on X that he and Rustem Umerov, who just became the head of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, met with Jonathan Powell, the UK national security adviser, as discussions continue among allies ahead of the Trump-Putin summit.
“Ahead lies an important week of diplomacy,” Yermak said.
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