Ukraine says its drones hit three refineries, tankers, in night of major strikes

MOSCOW, July 8 (Reuters) – Ukrainian drones struck three Russian oil refineries, Russian tankers on the Sea of Azov, and pipeline pumping stations, Ukrainian and Russian officials said on Wednesday, in a major night of strikes ranging from the Ukrainian border to the Urals mountains.

Russia has been suffering from acute fuel shortages in some regions as Ukraine wages a drone campaign against its oil refineries and energy infrastructure, with Kyiv hitting targets ever further from its own territory.

Kyiv on Monday hit the Omsk refinery, Russia’s largest, deep inside Siberia, around 2,700 km (1,700 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory.

In separate statements, Ukraine’s general staff and special forces said drones had hit the TANECO and TAIF-NK oil refineries in Tatarstan’s Nizhnekamsk, the Saratov oil refinery, and the Borisoglebsk military airbase in Voronezh region.

Russian officials confirmed strikes in those regions, though they did not specify what had been targeted. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had downed 415 drones overnight.

Ukraine also said it had struck a petroleum products pumping station in Russia’s Bashkortostan, 1,450 km (900 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory. Russian officials made no immediate mention of an attack there, but unverified footage on social media appeared to show a strike.

The degree of damage inflicted by the strikes was not immediately clear.

ADVANCED REFINERY HIT

Authorities in Tatarstan, which is around 1,400 km (870 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory, were cited by local media as saying that a number of people had been wounded in the strikes on Nizhnekamsk.

Nizhnekamsk’s TANECO refinery is one of Russia’s most technologically advanced, equipped with hydrocracking, catalytic cracking and delayed coking units.

According to industry data, TANECO processed 17.0 million tons of crude oil in 2024, while TAIF-NK processed 6.6 million metric tons (132,000 barrels per day) of crude oil that year.

Saratov regional governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram that one person had been killed and several wounded in a strike that damaged what he called “civilian industrial sites”.

The Saratov refinery is one of Russia’s largest and oldest, and has come under repeated attack from Ukraine in recent years.

Voronezh’s Governor Alexander Gusev likewise confirmed a Ukrainian strike, saying that a fire had broken out at an “infrastructure object” in the region.

Kyiv also said it had struck nine oil tankers in the Sea of Azov, a key supply route for Russian forces in Crimea and other Russian-controlled parts of southern Ukraine.

Rostov region Governor Yury Slyusar said on Telegram that two people had been wounded in the strikes, but that only two tankers, which he said were empty, had been struck.

Close to the Ukrainian border, Belgorod regional governor Alexander Shuvaev said that one person had been killed and six wounded in a drone strike on a village near the frontier.

Russia’s Gazprom also said drones had attacked the Krasnodarskaya pumping station, which helps send gas to Turkey via the Blue Stream pipeline, but that exports had not been affected.

Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war, now in its fifth year, causing widespread power outages and wintertime heating shortages.

Russia fired ballistic missiles at Kyiv overnight, its third attack in less than a week, killing at least one person.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Aidan Lewis and Alex Richardson)