KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military launched a wave of drones that hit three oil refineries in 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 dozens of drones, including half a dozen that reportedly launched a naval attack in the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian security official said his country’s armed forces had also attacked a drone launch facility in Russia, but declined to say how that target was attacked. The operations involved the armed forces and Ukraine’s security service SBU, the official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly release the information.
SBU drones hit 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 attacked a drone facility in the southern Russian city of Yeysk where Iranian-designed Shahed drones were stored and launched, the official said. A “series of explosions” was 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 Russian air defenses, Ukraine has continued its campaign to attack oil infrastructure across the border, hitting multiple locations in 2024, as part of a broader effort to disrupt Russian military supplies.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that its air defenses had shot down 114 Ukrainian drones. It said 70 drones had been 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, in response to an incident that appeared to be one of the largest drone attacks of its kind in recent months.
Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said Ukrainian drones also damaged a boiler room near a bus station in the city of Krasnodar, killing a worker.
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