KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine kept up its heavy drone assault on Russia, setting fire to a major oil refinery in the south and killing at least two people, Russian authorities said Sunday.
Kyiv's campaign of massive long-range strikes has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, in what authorities call an attempt to bring the Kremlin to the negotiating table.
Debris from downed Ukrainian drones sparked a blaze at the refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani,
a town in Russia's Krasnodar region, east of occupied Crimea, according to Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. The falling debris killed one person in Slavyansk and injured another in a nearby village, according to regional authorities.
Photos and videos circulating on Russian social media showed a thick cloud of smoke over what users said was the Slavyansk refinery. The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the images.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine was behind the strike on Slavyansk. He also claimed that a second Russian refinery, in the Yaroslavl region around 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was hit during the nighttime strikes.
“Tonight, our ‘long-range sanctions’ reached two oil refineries in Russia," Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Each (strike) means a reduction in the resources that fuel the Russian war machine, and another step toward peace."
Ukraine has markedly stepped up its long-range attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities in recent months, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for its invasion — now in its fifth year — and make Russians feel the consequences. The campaign has helped stall Moscow’s efforts on the battlefield and heap pressure on the Kremlin, according to Western officials.
The Slavyansk site is one of southern Russia’s major refineries, processing close to 4 million tons of crude per year, according to its operator’s website. It is also a key source of petroleum products intended for export through Russia’s Black Sea ports, including fuel oil, naphtha and marine fuel.
There were no immediate reports from Russian authorities about the Ukrainian strike on the refinery in the Yaroslavl region. Local Gov. Mikhail Evraev reported on Sunday morning that some roads between Moscow and the region's capital, Yaroslavl, were temporarily closed due to “an enemy attack by Ukrainian drones”.
Yaroslavl's airport also briefly closed overnight, along with others in southern and western Russia, according to the country's civil aviation agency.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian drone strikes killed one person and injured another in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, its acting Gov. Alexander Shuvayev reported on Sunday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 213 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russia, occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 142 long-range strike drones and eight missiles overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Of those, 125 drones and seven missiles were struck down, the air force said.
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