Ukraine says it will keep striking Russian energy sites
Kyiv’s security service said it hit a major fuel terminal in southern Russia as Moscow reported one death from a drone attack.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
Ukraine’s security service said it will continue attacking Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure after a drone strike damaged a sea terminal in southern Russia. Russian officials said one person was killed, underscoring the widening campaign against energy facilities that help fund Moscow’s war.
Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, said on Telegram on Saturday that falling drone debris started a fire at part of a facility in the Temryuk district. He did not identify the site or give detailed damage estimates.
Russian news outlets reported that the damaged facility was a Black Sea export terminal in the village of Volna that handles crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied gas. The area is in southern Russia, across the Kerch Strait from Russian-occupied Crimea.
Ukraine’s SBU security service said Saturday that it had targeted the Tamanneftegaz terminal in Krasnodar. The agency described the site as the largest liquefied hydrocarbon transshipment complex in southern Russia.
The SBU said its strike hit five fuel tanks and two oil loading stands. It said fires broke out around storage facilities and a freight transport depot at the terminal.
The attack fits a broader Ukrainian effort to hit Russian refineries, depots, pipelines and other energy assets far from the front line, according to AP and Reuters. Those strikes have increased pressure on Russia’s economy more than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Ukrainian attacks were “causing us damage,” according to the reporting, while saying Russia would recover quickly and increase its own strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Ukraine’s military also said it struck an oil processing and pumping site near Kotovo in Russia’s Volgograd region, causing a fire. Russian authorities said a strike had started a blaze in an industrial area there.
In a separate development, the International Atomic Energy Agency said outside power had been restored to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The plant had lost its external electricity supply several days earlier after a strike, according to the IAEA.
The SBU said Russia’s energy sector remains a military target because oil and gas revenue supports the war against Ukraine. The agency said oil income is converted into missiles, drones and ammunition used against Ukrainian cities, and said it would keep working to deny Russia those resources.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war remain stalled. Putin recently rejected an invitation for in-person talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to the reporting.
US President Donald Trump is expected to join a Group of Seven working session with Zelenskyy in France on Tuesday, AFP reported, citing a senior administration official. Trump’s government has mediated several rounds of talks after he pledged to seek a quick end to the war.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.