The Slavyansk oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack and was forced to partially suspend operations, state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing an executive overseeing the plant.
Despite being outnumbered on the battlefield in some places, Ukraine has systematically targeted Russia’s energy infrastructure, despite U.S. requests, disrupting Russia’s economy and potentially threatening Russia’s war effort. They are trying to disrupt the ability to provide funding.
Ukrainian sources told Reuters that Ukraine attacked the Irsky and Slavyansk refineries in Russia’s Krasnodar region with drones early Saturday, causing a fire at the facilities.
Overnight, Ukrainian drones also targeted the Krzychevsk military airfield in the region, the official said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defense forces destroyed 66 Ukrainian-made drones over the Krasnodar region and two more over Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
“Work at the (Slavyansk) factory has been partially suspended. Just 10 UAVs (drones) flew directly into the factory and a severe fire broke out. There may be hidden damage,” Slavyansk ECO said. said Eduard Tordnev, the group’s security director. TASS quoted the company that operates the factory as saying.
Earlier on Saturday, Roman Synagovsky, a local government official in the city of Slavyansk, said on the official Telegram channel that the refinery’s storage tank facilities were not damaged, but a distillation column had been hit.
He said the fire caused by the attack had been extinguished and no one was injured.