Ukraine's strategic drone strikes paralyze Russian fuel production

Ukraine is selectively targeting Russia's fuel infrastructure. Drone strikes launched in March have significantly disrupted the country’s fuel production, paralyzing about 10% of it.

The Ukrainian forces have been conducting selective attacks on key Russian oil facilities for months. Since the start of the year, they've launched numerous successful assaults on critical refinery plants, oil ports, and fuel depots. "Ukrainska Pravda" reports that, according to sources in the SBU, in recent days successful strikes were carried out on 12 refineries across Russia.

Reuters has outlined, based on industry source information, that 13% of the total output capacity of Russian refinery units is currently in an emergency shutdown state.

The damage inflicted on facilities producing petrol and diesel has resulted in a reduction of over 9% in Russian fuel output, equating to daily losses of approximately 77,400 tonnes of refined crude oil.

The Moscow Times has highlighted that the number of refineries damaged has seen a threefold increase, with emergency shutdowns in mid-March being 1.4 times above what was scheduled for maintenance.

Just this past weekend, Ukrainian forces confirmed hits on three refineries in the Samara region and another in the Krasnodar Territory. Together, the affected plants in the Samara region process around 27.6 million tons of oil each year. Additionally, a fire broke out at the Slaviansk oil refinery.

Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) sources indicated last Friday that Ukrainian drones effectively targeted a refinery in the Kaluga region, which is adjacent to Moscow. On Wednesday, attacks were reported on the Oil Products Plant in Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov region, as well as refineries in Ryazan, Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and Kirishi in the Leningrad region.

In the early hours of March 12, an explosion rocked the Lukoil refinery in Kstovo, with an annual processing capacity of around 17 million tons of oil, leading to a production stop.

By systematically targeting operational refineries and fuel depots, Ukraine is revealing vulnerabilities within Russia. These precise drone strikes not only endanger the country’s fuel security and damage the invading army's infrastructure but also impact Russian oil interests.