Ukraine Hits Third Russian Refinery in Escalating Drone Strikes

Bloomberg:  Ukrainian drone attacks halted three oil refineries deep within Russian territory in an assault President Vladimir Putin said was aimed at disrupting his presidential election later this week.

An aerial strike on Wednesday caused a blaze at one of the country’s biggest crude-processing facilities, Rosneft PJSC’s Ryazan plant near Moscow. The smaller Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the southern Rostov region was also halted by a drone attack, adding to the disruption caused by a similar incident at Lukoil PJSC’s Norsi plant on Tuesday.

Since the start of this year, Ukraine has used drones to target important Russian oil facilities from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea. As fighting on the front lines swings in Moscow’s favor, Kyiv has been trying to hamper the country’s oil-product exports and its ability to send fuel to its forces. An initial flurry of attacks in February affected almost a fifth of the country’s crude-processing capacity, but by early March the industry was already recovering.

Ukrainian strikes in Russian regions “are aimed at, if not frustrating the elections in Russia, then interfering with them,” Putin said in an interview with the RIA Novosti news service published Wednesday. “Another goal is to get some kind of trump card in a possible negotiation process.”

The Ryazan refinery, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) southeast of Moscow, has a capacity of 17.1 million tons a year, or around 340,000 barrels a day. It is a major supplier of motor fuels for Russian regions around the capital.

The drone attack “started a fire” at Ryazan that was later extinguished, regional Governor Pavel Malkov said Wednesday on his Telegram channel, without giving details of the extent of any damage. Two people were hospitalized, the Tass news service reported. The plant had to shut down two primary oil refining units, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.