KYIV(National Times)- Ukraine hit two Russian oil refineries in the regions of Krasnodar and Yaroslavl overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, as Kyiv ramps up pressure on Russia’s fuel supply with its drone fleet.
Kyiv’s increasingly frequent drone attacks have caused fuel shortages in parts of Russia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, with queues and rationing seen at petrol stations.
“We continue our operations that weaken Russia’s ability to wage this war,” Zelensky wrote on social media, adding that the refineries were about 300km and 700km from Ukrainian territory.
A drone strike hit the private Slavyansk oil refinery, which has a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day. Governor of Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratiev confirmed the strike sparked a major fire, resulting in one fatality and another injury in a nearby village.
Following the aerial attack, Yaroslavl region, east of Moscow, faced disruptions as local authorities placed temporary transit limits on certain road routes leading to the Russian capital.
These operations follow a separate large-scale attack last week that caused a major fire at a refinery southeast of Moscow.
Kyiv’s intensifying campaign against Russian logistics and energy infrastructure has triggered acute fuel shortages, rationing, and power cuts in parts of southern Russia and Russian-annexed Crimea, which recently declared an “emergency situation” to handle the fallout.
Kyiv maintains these retaliatory strikes are retribution for Moscow’s near-daily bombardments of Ukrainian civilians and energy facilities since the February 2022 invasion.
Putin calls it ‘a difficult period’
Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Sunday that Russia was going through a difficult period, but that it taught the country much, state news agency TASS reported.
He was speaking at the conference of the ruling United Russia party, ahead of parliamentary elections due for September.
While acknowledging the infrastructure vulnerabilities and labeling the strikes “terrorist attacks”, Putin vowed to overcome the challenges. “We will certainly ensure the security of both the country and our citizens, as well as the inviolability of Russia’s borders,” he said.
On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military said a ballistic missile attack was underway in Kyiv early Sunday morning. “Air defence forces are operating in the capital. Remain in shelters,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
AFP journalists heard explosions and saw several flashes in the sky.
Russian strikes a day earlier in Dnipropetrovsk in central-eastern Ukraine and the northern Sumy region killed two people.
Russia’s Defence Ministry reported territorial advances on Sunday. According to the state news agency TASS, Russian forces have captured two more southeastern villages: Pysantsi in the Dnipropetrovsk region and Novoselivka in the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region.
It also comes after Ukraine launched attacks on Volgograd and Belgorod in Russia’s southwest, and Horlivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which is controlled by Moscow. Three people were killed in the attacks, regional authorities said.
