Ukraine’s military says it has conducted another drone attack on an oil refinery in southern Russia. Ukraine has been stepping up such strikes aiming to reduce Russian economic and military potential.
The military announced that it carried out the attack on the Tuapse oil refinery on Tuesday. The facility lies on the coast of the Black Sea.
Footage distributed by Reuters news agency shows black smoke rising. The governor of the area said on social media that a large fire broke out and residents nearby are being urged to evacuate.
Reuters and other media outlets report that the refinery has a production capacity of about 240,000 barrels a day and is involved in Russian fuel exports. Ukraine’s military says it also launched a strike on the facility in mid-April.
The latest attack on the Russian refinery comes as Ukraine has been intensifying long-distance attacks on energy-related facilities in Russia as a strategy to degrade its ability to finance its invasion.
A US think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, says that Ukraine conducted at least 10 strikes against Russian oil and natural gas facilities in a period of around two weeks that ended Sunday.
In an interview with the British public broadcaster BBC, a commander of Ukrainian forces that specialize in unmanned systems described the Russian territory 1,500 to 2,000 kilometers away from Ukraine as being “no longer a peaceful rear.” The commander added that these attacks will intensify.
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