Ukraine claims to have hit three oil refineries in Russia

(Patria) - The Ukrainian army launched a wave of drone attacks that hit
three oil refineries in southern Russia overnight, a security official said on Friday, AFP reported.

Russia said its air defenses shot down dozens of drones, including naval attack drones in the Black Sea.

A Ukrainian security official said his country's forces also struck a drone launch facility in Russia, but declined to say how the target was attacked. The armed forces and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) participated in the operations, the official said. The official spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

SBU drones hit oil refineries at the Russian locations of Afipsky, Ilsky, and Krasnodar, which supply fuel for Russia's Black Sea Fleet ships, the official said.

Ukrainian forces also struck a drone facility in the southern Russian city of Yeysk, where Iranian-designed Shahed drones were stored and launched, the official said. A "series of explosions" was recorded there, the official said.

Russian regional authorities in the Krasnodar region said four people were injured, including oil refinery workers, as a result of drone strikes. Despite improved Russian air defenses, Ukraine has continued its campaign of attacks on cross-border oil infrastructure, hitting multiple locations in 2024 as part of a broader effort to disrupt Russian military supplies.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said on Friday that its air defenses shot down 114 Ukrainian drones. It stated that 70 drones were shot down over Crimea and the Black Sea, 43 in the Krasnodar region, and one in the Volgograd region, further east.

Russian warplanes also destroyed six Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea early on Friday, the ministry said, responding to an incident that appeared to be one of the largest drone attacks of its kind in recent months.

Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the Krasnodar region, said Ukrainian drones also damaged a boiler room near a bus station in the city of Krasnodar, killing one worker.