Ukrainian drones target Russian oil refineries in strategic economic blow

Three refineries in the Samara region were attacked overnight by drones from the Ukrainian Security Service, Reuters and Ukrinform reported on Saturday.

Sources confirm that the nighttime attack on Russian refineries was successful. SBU strike drones hit three Rosneft oil refineries in the Samara region. The facilities together process about 27 million tonnes of oil annually, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the entire oil processing in the Russian Federation.

According to the Baza channel, an unmanned aerial vehicle attacked the facilities in Syzran at 6 AM local time (3 AM GMT) causing a fire that covered approximately 500 square metres.

A refinery in Novokuibyshevsk was also attacked. There, a fire broke out as well, but it has been extinguished.

"The SBU continues to implement a strategy to weaken the economic potential of the Russian Federation, which allows it to wage war in Ukraine. The season of attacks on Russian refineries is in full swing. Each such defeat limits the inflow of petrodollars that fuel the wartime economy of the Russian Federation" – notes Ukrinform

These are the latest drone attacks on Russian refineries. Sources in the Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) reported on Friday that Ukrainian drones had successfully attacked a refinery in the Moscow-adjacent Kaluga Oblast. On Wednesday, the target was the Oil Products Plant in Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov Oblast, as well as refineries in Ryazan, Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, and Kirishi in the Leningrad Oblast.