Ukrainian Drone Attack Successfully Damages Russian Oil Refinery

Ukrainian drone forces on the battlefield. (Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)

JAKARTA - Ukraine attacked a Russian oil refinery on the second day of a massive drone attack on Wednesday, causing a fire at Rosneft's largest refinery, in one of the most serious attacks on Russia's energy sector in recent months.

A day after extensive damage to Lukoil's newly opened NORSI refinery in Nizhny Novgorod, Ukrainian drone strikes hit refineries in the Rostov and Ryazan regions, Russian officials said.

In Ryazan, 180 km (110 miles) from Moscow, a drone strike caused a fire at a Rosneft refinery, Russia's seventh-largest oil refinery and there were initial reports of injuries, said Governor Pavel Malkov, who in his latest update said the fire was successful. extinguished, quoted from Reuters, March 14.

Russia's state news agency RIA said four Ukrainian drones attacked the Ryazan refinery early Wednesday, causing a fire covering an area of ​​175 square meters.

Geographically captured video by Reuters showed black smoke billowing above flames at the refinery, which refines about 12.7 million metric tons of oil a year, or 4.6% of Russia's total oil output, according to industry sources.

The refinery accounts for about 6.4 percent of Russia's production of gasoline, 4.1 percent of diesel, 7.7 percent of fuel oil and 8 percent of aviation fuel, according to the sources. Full Russian production figures are no longer published.

Russian media said around 60 drones had been destroyed over Russia's sovereign territory over several hours on Wednesday.

Two sources familiar with the situation said the refinery was forced to close its two main oil refining units. Rosneft did not reply to a request for comment.

In Rostov, there were no casualties but the Novoshakhtinsk refinery was forced to halt production, regional governor Vasily Golubev said. Two sources later said refinery operations had resumed.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian sources said the drone attack was carried out by Ukraine's SBU security service.

"We are systematically implementing a detailed and calculated strategy to reduce Russia's economic potential," the source said.

Ukrainian defense forces, the SBU source added, also carried out drone strikes overnight against the Russian airbase in Buturlinovka and a military airfield in the Voronezh region.

Attacks on oil refineries – Russia's main source of revenue – have the potential to reduce the country's gasoline and diesel production and raise prices.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose 2 percent partly on concerns about supply disruptions following attacks that President Vladimir Putin said were an attempt to disrupt his country's presidential election this week.

President Putin on Wednesday accused Kyiv of trying to disrupt the March 15-17 presidential election through its attacks.

"The main goal, I believe, is, if not to disrupt the presidential elections in Russia, at least to disrupt the normal process of expressing the will of citizens," President Putin told Russian news agency RIA and state-run Rossiya-1 television in an interview.

It is known that Russia and Ukraine have both used drones to attack critical infrastructure, military installations and troop concentrations in a war that has been going on for more than two years. Kyiv has also stepped up attacks on Russian refineries and energy facilities in recent months.