An unprecedented drone assault hits Russia's oil infrastructure

Last night, there was one of the most substantial drone attacks on Russian territory. Over one hundred drones attacked oil and gas infrastructure in Crimea, Krasnodar Krai, Adygea, and Volgograd Oblast.

The Russian Ministry of Defence reported that the country's air defence system neutralised 114 Ukrainian drones from Thursday to Friday night, Greenwich Mean Time.

According to information provided by the ministry, 70 of these drones were shot down over the territory of Russian-annexed Crimea, 43 in Krasnodar Krai, and one in Volgograd Oblast. One person was killed, reported AFP.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar Krai, announced on his Telegram channel that several buildings on the oil refinery premises in the Seversky district were damaged. The body of one victim was found under the rubble.

The Ministry of Defence in Moscow claims that the armed forces destroyed six Ukrainian sea drones in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.

Ukrainian troops and special services regularly carry out advanced operations over Russian territory using unmanned aerial vehicles. The targets of these attacks are military, industrial, and technological objects, including those located in regions far from the Ukrainian border, such as Tatarstan and Leningrad Oblast.

In recent months, there has been an increase in attacks on Russian refineries. According to Reuters estimates, the processing capacity of facilities in Russia that were taken out of service in the first quarter of 2024 due to drone raids was about 5 million tonnes of crude oil (approximately 393,000 barrels per day). This accounted for about 7 percent of the processing capacity of all refineries in the country.