Ukraine strikes major Russian oil refineries
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The news: Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, launched a series of drone strikes on oil refineries deep within Russian territory on Wednesday morning.
The numbers: The oil facilities targeted by Ukraine over the past two days account for around 12% of Russia’s oil-processing capacity. During February, Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil facilities impacted almost a fifth of the country’s crude-processing capacity.
The context: Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times that the SBU attacked three refineries; in Ryazan, 200km south-east of Moscow, in Kstovo, 450km east of Moscow, and in Kirishi, 150km south-east of Saint Petersburg.
The aerial strikes have set the Ryazan plant ablaze, halting work at one of the country’s largest crude-processing facilities. The wave of attacks by Ukraine started on Tuesday, hitting a unit of Lukoil PJSC’s Norsi refinery, and an oil depot in the Oryol region, and aims to disrupt Russia’s exports and fuel supplies to its army on the front lines.
What they said: In an interview with RIA Novosti news service on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the strikes’ “main goal, I have no doubt about it, is to — if not to disrupt the presidential elections in Russia — then at least somehow interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of citizens […] Another goal is to get some kind of trump card in a possible negotiation process.”
The sources: Financial Times, Bloomberg
