Ukrainian forces carried out another successful drone strike on Russian soil on May 1, targeting an oil refinery in the country's Ryazan region.
Russian Telegram channels shared videos showing a blaze engulf the oil refinery, as drones struck the Ryazan and Voronezh regions overnight. Pavlo Malkov, Ryazan's regional governor, said an "inspection is ongoing" at the refinery, which is owned and operated by Rosneft, the country's largest oil producer.
Ukrainian authorities have not officially claimed responsibility for the attack, and they rarely do for attacks on Russian soil, but Olha Stefanishyna, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister, said in March that Russian oil refineries were legitimate military targets for Ukraine.
"Drones attacked the Ryazan Refinery. A fire started there. According to eyewitnesses, the attack happened around 3 o'clock in the morning. Witnesses report that a rumble was heard, and then two explosions took place," reported the Baza Telegram channel, which has ties to Russia's security services.
Kyiv has increased its attacks on Russian refineries this year, hampering gasoline production in Russia.
Rosstat, Russia's Federal State Statistics Service, said that in the week ending March 24, the nation's production of motor petrol fell by about 7.4 percent to 754,600 tons compared to the week prior, when production was at 815,300 tons, local media reported.
Reuters calculated that about 14 percent of the nation's primary oil-refining capacity had been hampered by Ukrainian drone attacks by the end of March.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.
An intelligence source told the Kyiv Post that the May attack was orchestrated by Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR.
"This is a special operation of the HUR," the source said.
"A military target in Ryazan has been hit. There is significant damage, it was bright," another Ukrainian intelligence source told Ukrainska Pravda.
Another day, another Ukrainian strike on Russ energy infrastructure. Today it’s turn of Ryazan. Yday, military intelligence general Vadym Skibitsky told me deep strikes are key to Urkaine’s defence. “You can’t just stupidly sit in defence and try to restrain enemy onslaught.” pic.twitter.com/DOI8Hs6Dzx
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) May 1, 2024
In March, Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said the government agency was behind all the attacks on Russian oil hubs and that they would continue. The agency has estimated that it has carried out at least 13 successful attacks on Russian oil refineries during the war so far.
The Ryazan oil refinery was previously targeted by Ukrainian drones on March 13. The facility refines about 12.7 million metric tons of Russian crude per year (about 317,000 barrels daily). According to Reuters, the figure represents 5.8 percent of Russia's total refined crude.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
