Ukraine Strikes Russian Oil Target Deep Behind Enemy Lines

A Ukrainian drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery in southern Russia early on Sunday, according to a Russian regional official, as Kyiv intensifies its drone campaign on Moscow's oil infrastructure.

Russia's Defense Ministry said early on Sunday that a number of Ukrainian attacks were intercepted across several regions overnight, including one drone over the Volgograd Oblast.

The uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) fell and detonated, causing a fire at the Volgograd oil refinery, Russian regional governor, Andrey Bocharov, said in a statement. The fire was extinguished and there were no casualties, he said.

Kyiv has been consistently targeting Russia's oil refineries with long-range drones, denting Russia's oil exports in the hope of cutting off resources Moscow can channel into its war effort. Russia's oil sector is under Western sanctions, but it still holds a major position in the global market.

Ukraine is often coy about claiming responsibility for strikes over the border into Russia, which can be a sticking point for Kyiv's Western backers. In March, the Financial Times reported that the U.S. had pushed Ukraine to stop its attacks on Russia's oil refineries for fear of spikes in global oil prices and the risk of retaliation.

But Kyiv has said oil refineries were legitimate military targets. The head of Ukraine's Security Service, Vasyl Malyuk, has previously acknowledged Kyiv's role in striking oil refineries, adding that explosions would continue at Russian facilities.

Ukraine targeted the Volgograd refinery back in February this year.

Several Russian Telegram channels published footage purportedly showing a blaze at the Volgograd facility. The Baza channel, which claims to have links to Russia's security services, and independent Russian outlet Astra shared clips appearing to show orange flames against the night sky at the oil refinery.

Newsweek could not independently verify the footage, and the Russian Defense Ministry has been contacted for comment via email.

Early on Saturday, Ukrainian media reported that long-range drones had struck the Volgograd refinery using a UAV operated by Kyiv's military intelligence agency, known as the GUR.

A Russian official said earlier this week that Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in the Bashkortostan region. The refinery was almost 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Russia's border with Ukraine, outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Russian state-controlled media reported on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had struck an oil depot in the Moscow-annexed Luhansk region late local time on Friday, sparking a "major fire."

Russia has annexed the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collectively known as the Donbas, although this is not internationally recognized. Moscow also laid claim to the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, although it does not exert full control over these regions.

The Kremlin seized control of the Crimean peninsula, to the south of mainland Ukraine, in 2014. Kyiv has vowed to reclaim all Russian-annexed regions.

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed head of the Luhansk region, said three people were killed in an attack on the Rovenki oil depot.

Russian state media reported on Friday that a Ukrainian drone had targeted an oil refinery in the Kaluga region, sparking a fire. Vladislav Shapsha, the Kaluga regional governor, said in a statement early on Friday local time that a Ukrainian UAV crashing had caused a blaze in an industrial area to the northwest of the city of Kaluga, but did not offer further details.

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