Ukraine intensifies drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and factories

The agency's informants confirmed that a fire broke out at the facility as a result of the strike. Raids on targets in Russia will continue to reduce the Kremlin's income from oil production and export. A precise series of drone attacks on operating refineries and fuel depots in Russia is aimed at the country's fuel security, significantly impacting the invading army's logistics as well as Russian oil interests.

Based on the analysis of photos showing the results of the drone attack on the facility in Nizhnekamsk, it can be assessed that the target of this strike was the oil processing unit at the Tatneft petrochemical concern's refinery. Reuters noted earlier on Tuesday that it's responsible for about half of the plant's total annual production capacity, which is over 17 million tonnes (approximately 376,000 barrels per day).

According to the data for 2022, the Tatneft concern based in Almetyevsk, Tatarstan, was the seventh largest company in Russia and the fifth in terms of oil production.

Also on Tuesday, the RBK-Ukraine portal, citing sources in the Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), confirmed that officers of this service carried out a drone attack on enterprises in Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk in the early hours. It was explained that in the first of these towns, a strike was made on a factory producing Shahed-type drones based on technology from Iran and used for raids on civilian targets in Ukraine.

Russian and Ukrainian media highlight that these were the first drone attacks in Tatarstan since the beginning of the war, i.e., February 2022 - a region more than 1,000 kilometres from the Ukrainian borders.

In March, HUR and SBU confirmed that they had carried out strikes on refineries, including those in Sloviansk in the Krasnodar Territory, Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov region, Ryazan, Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and Kirishi in the Leningrad region. Media from Russia and Ukraine also reported raids on refineries in Syzran and Novokuybyshevsk in the Samara region and a fire near a thermal power plant in Petersburg.

In the first half of last month, there were also reports of drone attacks on industrial facilities crucial for the Russian arms industry - Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant in Zheleznogorsk in the Kursk region and Severstal metallurgical plants in Cherepovets in the Vologda region.

Reuters estimates that the processing capabilities of Russian refineries, put out of operation in the first quarter of 2024 due to drone attacks, amounted to about 4.6 million tonnes of crude oil (averaging 370,500 barrels per day), which is equivalent to about 7 percent of the processing capabilities of all plants in the country.

The US authorities have repeatedly emphasized that they do not encourage Ukraine to conduct attacks on Russian territory nor assist her in these operations. On 22 March, the British newspaper "Financial Times" reported that Washington was even pressing Kyiv, asking it to halt drone raids on refineries. According to these reports, the United States may be concerned about a possible rise in world oil prices.