Ukrainian drone strikes target Russian refineries, escalating economic warfare
16 March 2024 19:11
Three refineries in the Samara region in the European part of Russia have been attacked by drones. The portal RBK-Ukraine revealed that the Ukrainian Security Service carried out the attacks. This marks another occurrence of such attacks in recent days.
According to the Russian channel Baza, a drone targeted the facilities in Syzran at 4 AM Greenwich Time, causing a fire over an area of approximately 500 square metres.
A refinery in Novokuibyshevsk was also targeted, where a fire broke out but has since been extinguished.
The municipal authorities in Syzran have confirmed the information about the fire. They emphasized that no one was injured, and workers were evacuated in time. These plants are owned by the Rosneft conglomerate.
On Saturday afternoon, the portal RBK-Ukraine, citing its sources, disclosed that the Ukrainian Security Service executed the attacks on the refinery.
"According to the source, that night SBU strike drones operated in three Rosneft oil refineries in the Samara region," the portal reported.
"In total, the three factories process about 25 million tonnes of oil annually, which constitutes almost 10 percent of the entire oil refining capacity in the Russian Federation," it was added.
"The SBU continues to implement a strategy to weaken the economic potential of the Russian Federation, which enables it to wage the war in Ukraine. The 'cotton' season in Russian refineries is in full swing. Each such attack limits the inflow of funds that fuel the Russian military economy," reads the article by RBK-Ukraine.
These attacks are more drone operations against Russian refineries. Sources in Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) reported on Friday that Ukrainian drones had successfully targeted a refinery in the Kaluga region bordering Moscow. On Wednesday, the target was the Novoshakhtinsk Product Company in the Rostov region, as well as refineries in Ryazan, Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and Kirishi in the Leningrad region.
Source: RBK-Ukraine, PAP
