Ukraine strikes refinery deep inside Russia

Ukraine’s drone forces hit a refinery complex deep inside Russia on Saturday, while Kyiv and other parts of the country struggled to restore power after overnight Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

Kyiv targeted the Bashneft refineries in Ufa, in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is not public. Russian officials haven’t confirmed any damage.

The Ufa area has three refineries: Novoil, Ufimsky and Ufaneftekhim. Together they process 23.5 million tons of oil a year, or more than 470,000 barrels a day. Ufa sits about 1,750km (1,100 miles) northeast of Kyiv and 1,600km east of Moscow. Repeated attacks on the sites this year show Ukraine’s growing ability to reach far into Russian territory.

Ukraine has regularly gone after Russia’s oil industry to limit the Kremlin’s ability to fund the war, while its own energy system takes constant fire. On Friday, it struck a major Rosneft refinery in the Samara region. That was the first confirmed attack on a Russian fuel plant in about two weeks. No refinery strikes had been confirmed since Oct 15, a pause that coincided with calls for calm from President Donald Trump, who wanted to bring down US fuel prices before the midterm elections.

Kyiv has kept up long-range drone and missile strikes on other targets in Russia, including military and industrial sites, data centres, logistics hubs, chemical plants and airports. Ukraine’s General Staff also reported a drone and missile strike on Saturday on the Kamensky plant in Russia’s Rostov region. Ukraine says the plant makes rocket fuel for aviation weapons systems.