Ukraine strikes major refinery and oil terminal in Russia, extending deep-strike campaign

Ukraine hit a major oil refinery and a smaller oil terminal inside Russia overnight, the latest in an escalating campaign to disrupt the energy infrastructure that bankrolls Moscow’s war machine. What happened Ukrainian forces claimed responsibility for overnight strikes on two separate Russian energy sites. One target was a major refinery, and the other was a smaller oil terminal. Earlier this summer, Ukrainian drones struck the Rosneft-operated oil refinery in Saratov on or around August 2, sparking a large fire and halting crude processing at the facility. That attack underscored just how far Kyiv’s operational reach now extends, with Saratov sitting well over 500 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled territory. The Saratov strike was not an outlier. In early July, drone debris caused a fire at the Ilsky Oil Refinery in the Krasnodar region. On July 4, Ukraine targeted an oil terminal near St. Petersburg, one of Russia’s larger petroleum facilities. And in a strike that raised eyebrows for its sheer audacity, Ukrainian drones hit the Omsk refinery, roughly 2,500 kilometers from Ukraine’s border. The Omsk facility is the largest refinery in Russia. The strategic logic ...