Ukrainian drones targeted a Russian oil refinery hundreds of kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the latest in a campaign of deep strikes aimed at disrupting Russia’s oil industry.
The May 31 overnight attacks on the facility in the central Saratov region -- the second since March -- did not appear to have caused any casualties.
But a large fire and thick black smoke were reported at the plant belonging to the state-owned oil company Rosneft.
Ukraine’s military said its drones targeted the Saratov refinery, along with several other locations across Russia.
Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said “civilian infrastructure” was hit, but did not specify what exactly.
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Ukrainian Drones Strike Oil Refinery Deep Inside Russia
Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has markedly stepped up its drone campaign on Russian oil and gas facilities across the country.
The effort appears aimed at curtailing Russia’s ability to export hydrocarbons and garner revenues to fund its all-out war on Ukraine.
Russia has benefited from the spike in global energy prices caused by the US-and-Israeli war against Iran.
Ukraine’s efforts, which have also targeted pipelines and storage facilities, have forced a halt or reduction in production at virtually all major oil refineries in central Russia. This has dramatically cut Russia's oil output, according to estimates by Reuters.
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Ukraine Says Drones Hit 23 Strategic Targets Inside Russia
In Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014, local authorities announced gasoline would be rationed, with drivers restricted to daily limits and barred from using portable containers.
Public transportation would be given priority, regional head Sergei Aksyonov said.
Separately, a drone detonated on May 30 near the turbine building of one of the six nuclear reactors at the Zaporizhzhya plant-- Ukraine's largest.
Aleksei Likhachev, the head of the Russian state atomic company Rosatom, claimed that the drone was Ukrainian. Ukraine's military rejected the claim, and accused Russia of trying to deflect from its own war crimes and losses.
The Zaporizhzhya plant is the largest nuclear facility in Europe, but has been brought to a cold shutdown since 2022 when the Russian military occupied part of the region and the plant, forcing the local staff to manage the station under their command.
Kyiv has accused Russia of sabotaging the plant numerous times since as an effort to frame Ukraine.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said a team of specialists inspected the facility in the wake of the incident, and reported no elevated levels of radiation.
The agency did not identify the drone.