Ukraine has humiliated Russian President Vladimir Putin with overnight drone attacks on major oil hubs and a missile manufacturer.
Kyiv’s military said it struck two Russian oil refineries and three facilities involved in missile production overnight into Friday as Ukraine intensified its campaign against the energy and defense infrastructure powering Moscow’s war.
Perm Krai Governor Dmitry Makhonin said there was a “massive UAV attack” and that Ukraine had targeted an industrial facility. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was “responding to Russia’s brutal strikes against life.”
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said it hit the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov region, forcing it to suspend operations temporarily. One of Russia’s largest oil refineries, the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez refinery in Perm, was also hit, alongside missile manufacturers.
“Three key facilities involved in missile production were hit,” the General Staff said.
Ukraine said it struck the Iskra research and production enterprise plant in Ulyanovsk, which specializes in producing semiconductor devices and electronic components for Russia’s defense industry.
The General Staff said the facility is involved in the production of Kh-59M2/M2A guided air-launched missiles and components for Putin’s prized Pantsir-S1 air-defense system.
Kyiv also said its forces struck the Efremov Synthetic Rubber Plant in Russia’s Tula region and the Voronezhsintezkauchuk plant in the Voronezh region.
“Both facilities are involved in the production of solid rocket propellant, including for Iskander ballistic missiles,” the General Staff said.
The attacks deliver another blow to Putin as Kyiv ramps up its attacks on Russia’s crucial energy infrastructure, more than four years into the war.
Ukraine struck Russian oil refineries at least 21 times in August, the highest number recorded in a single month, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
The campaign has strained Russia’s ability to produce enough fuel to meet domestic demand despite the country being one of the world’s biggest oil producers. Wholesale fuel prices have risen, authorities have introduced rationing in some regions, and social-media footage has shown motorists lining up for fuel.
Oil exports and Russia’s broader energy industry account for roughly 30 percent of government budget revenues and remain critical to financing Moscow’s war effort.
Putin earlier this month sought to minimize the impact of the attacks, claiming Russia had repaired 90 percent of the damaged refineries.
“We have only 10 percent of our refineries left to repair, but it wasn’t enough to prevent another strike on the ones that had already been repaired,” Putin told reporters. “Just last night, there was another attempt to strike three oil refineries. It didn’t work because they’re already protected.”
But former Russian oil tycoon and prominent Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky offered a dramatically different assessment last month, arguing that repeated Ukrainian strikes were pushing Russia’s oil industry toward a potentially catastrophic “breaking point.”
“No one can name the day when the patches give out—not in Kyiv, not in Washington, and not in Moscow,” Khodorkovsky wrote in a blog post. “But the question is no longer whether Ukraine’s campaign is working, it’s what happens as the breaking point approaches.”
Putin also vowed revenge following earlier Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure.
“They battered our people, and they will get a response,” Putin said after announcing that he had instructed Russian forces to prepare large-scale strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities.
