Ukraine has said it again targeted the Yaroslavl oil refinery in central Russia to inflict a further overnight damage on the federation’s energy infrastructure.
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian forces used long-range drones against Russia’s oil processing and export facilities, in particular the Yaroslavl refinery on Thursday night, Zelenskyy said in a Telegram statement.
“We are bringing the war home to Russia, and this is quite fair,” Zelenskyy said, without specifying whether the 300,000-barrel-a-day facility, a target of two previous attacks in May, was damaged in the new strike.
According to Bloomberg, satellite images from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System taken on late last week show a relatively fresh heat anomaly at the refinery, that could signal a blaze.
Yaroslavl governor, Mikhail Yevrayev, said earlier Friday that an overnight drone attack on the region, some 280 kilometers (around 175 miles) northeast of Moscow, was repelled, but debris may have fallen in the affected area.
Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure had cut its refinery runs to multi-year lows by mid-May. With Ukraine ramping up attacks, Russian oil processing is set to fall further, just as domestic seasonal demand for gasoline and diesel increases.
Still, Moscow sees no current risk of fuel shortages despite the attacks, Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told the media.
Attributing lower oil-product output in some Russian regions to “seasonal maintenance works,” Peskov said overall fuel supply and demand in the country are balanced.
Oil firm and co-owner of the refinery, Gazprom Neft PJSC, could not immediately respond to inquiriesover the incident.
