Ukrainian drones targeted several oil refineries in the Krasnodar region on Saturday, in the latest in a series of attempted strikes.
Russia repelled a wave of attempted Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries and energy infrastructure in the country’s southern Krasnodar region on Saturday, a local governor said.
Thwarting air defenses “An attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack” More than a dozen drones were intercepted over the Slavyansk, Kochevsk and Seversky regions, Veniamin Kondratiev wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday morning. He added that there were no reports of casualties.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday morning that the Russian military intercepted a total of 68 drones overnight, including two over Crimea.
The head of the Slavyansk region, Roman Siniagovsky, said that an air strike destroyed the distillation column at the oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban. The official wrote in a post on the Telegram application that the attack caused a fire that has since been extinguished.
“There were nine attacks in total on the tank farm and the distillation column. Thanks to the built-in protection system, the tank farm was not damaged.
The region’s operations headquarters later reported that a fire had also been extinguished in a separation unit at the ore processing facility.
Witnesses told the SHOT Telegram channel that Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck around 4 a.m., and explosions reportedly continued for more than 30 minutes as air defense and electronic warfare systems were activated.
The Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnodar region has already been targeted by Ukrainian forces. Local officials said it caught fire in March after a Ukrainian drone strike in which one person died of a suspected heart attack.
Since January, Ukraine has launched a series of long-range drone attacks on Russian energy facilities, including oil depots and refineries.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu indicated that the strikes were aimed at convincing Kiev’s Western supporters and compensating for the lack of progress on the front line.
The Washington Post wrote earlier this week that US Vice President Kamala Harris secretly asked Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to refrain from striking Russian oil refineries when they met on the sidelines of the Munich security conference in February.
The White House reportedly fears attacks on refineries inside Russia could push up global prices and spark widespread retaliation from Moscow.
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