Ukraine claims three oil refinery strikes inside Russia as Moscow says naval attack thwarted

KYIV (AP): The Ukrainian military launched a wave of drones that struck three oil refineries inside southern Russia overnight, a security official said Friday, as Ukraine tries to disrupt the infrastructure that supplies the Russian military.

Russia said its air defenses shot down scores of drones, including a half dozen it said were launching a naval attack in the Black Sea.

The Ukrainian security official said his country’s forces also struck a drone-launching facility within Russia, but declined to say how that target was attacked. The operations involved the armed forces and the Ukrainian Security Service, SBU, the official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to announce the information publicly.

SBU drones struck oil refineries in the Russian locations of Afipsky, Ilsky, and Krasnodar, which supply fuel for ships in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the official said.

Ukrainian forces also struck a drone facility in the southern Russia town of Yeysk where Iranian-designed Shahed drones were stored and launched, the official said. A “series of explosions” were recorded there, the official said.

Russian regional authorities in the Krasnodar region said four people were injured, including oil refinery workers, as a result of drone strikes.

Despite improvements in Russia’s air defenses, Ukraine has continued its campaign to strike oil infrastructure across the border, hitting multiple sites in 2024, as part of a wider effort to disrupt Russia’s military supplies.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defenses had downed 114 Ukrainian drones It said that 70 drones were shot down in Crimea and the Black Sea, 43 in the Krasnodar region and one in the Volgograd region, further east.

Russian warplanes also destroyed six Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea early Friday, the ministry said, responding to an incident that appeared to be one of the largest drone attacks of its type in recent months.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said that Ukrainian drones also damaged a boiler room near a bus station in the city of Krasnodar, killing a worker.