Ukraine launched a major attack on Russia, fired 62 drones; Oil refinery closed after the attack
Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine launched a massive 62-drone attack on Russian territories, forcing an oil refinery in southern Russia to halt operations and Kiev’s military firing US, French and Ukrainian missiles at the Russian-held region.
Russia shot down at least 103 drones, including 62 over Russian territory as well as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), French guided ‘Hammer’ bombs and US High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) over Crimea.
Six drones crashed in the area of an oil refinery in Slavyansk in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, local officials said. The Interfax news agency said the refinery halted work after the attack.
TASS quoted a refinery official as saying that the strikes by Ukraine-launched drones were larger than previous attacks and also included steel balls. The Slavyansk Refinery is a private plant with a capacity of 4 million metric tons of oil per year, approximately 80,000 barrels per day.
Ukraine’s security service SBU and military drones struck the Slavyansk refinery and a military airfield in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region in overnight strikes, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters in Kiev.
The Ukrainian Navy also said it had destroyed the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Project 266-M Kovrovets minesweeper. Russia said its forces had defeated Ukraine’s 24th and 42nd Mechanized Brigades and the 125th Air Defense Brigade in Lukyantsi, Vesele and Radhospne in the Kharkiv region and repulsed attacks by Kiev forces at other points in the region.
Russia has reported an increase in Ukrainian attacks on its territory since opening a new front in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine earlier this month. President Vladimir Putin says that Russia is creating a buffer zone there to protect Russia from such attacks.
Russia says that if Ukraine uses Western weapons, there is a risk of a wider war between Russia and the West. Putin said on Friday that Russia has no immediate plans to take Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in line with US policy not to encourage the use of US weapons by Ukraine against Russian sovereign territory, the White House said on Friday. There has been no change. White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters,
We neither encourage nor enable attacks using US-supplied weapons systems inside Russian territory. This is the policy. That hasn’t changed.
The comments came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Kiev on Wednesday that the United States does not encourage Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia with US-supplied weapons, but believes That this is a decision that Kiev must take for itself.
Crimea Russia said on Saturday that its forces had captured the village of Staritsiya in the Kharkiv region and that they had defeated Ukrainian units on the front, including in the Sumy region. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and its forces took control of it, along with parts of four other regions, areas that it considers part of Russia – about 18% of Ukraine. That stance has been rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
