Strikes on oil infrastructure hits Russians in the pocket

RUSSIANS are feeling the effects of Ukrainian strikes on oil infrastructure “in their pockets” as a depot in the Kursk region became the latest site to be targeted.

Russian officials said that the depot in the region, which borders Ukraine, exploded after it was hit early yesterday morning. Roman Starovoyt, regional governor, said: “Fire brigades and emergency services are working at the scene of the incident.” He did not specify which oil depot was hit or its size.

The attack is part of a Ukrainian strategy to strike oil and gas facilities across Russia, which the British Ministry of Defence said has forced the Kremlin to ban fuel exports for six months to try to dampen price rises.

It said: “It is likely that Russia’s refining capacity had been temporarily reduced by multiple uncrewed aerial vehicle strikes against refineries across Russia.”

Russia’s fuel export ban, introduced on March 1, follows a similar threemonth ban that came into place mid September. The ban last year was triggered by Russian farmers who threatened to protest unless the Kremlin brought fuel price rises under control. Fuel prices in Russia have risen by around 10 per cent this year after several drone attacks on oil and gas facilities, including a strike on major chemical export infrastructure near St Petersburg and refineries on the Black Sea and central Russia.

The Kremlin has blamed fuel price rises on market fluctuations but commentators on Russian regional news websites have complained that people are “feeling it in their wallets”. Even Russian energy insiders have linked shortages to attacks on infrastructure and the effect of Western sanctions.

Anastasia Bunina, the deputy director of the Gainful oil company, said the drone attacks were causing problems as it copes with the breakdown of a depot in Nizhny Novgorod that refines 5 per cent of Russia’s fuel, because of a lack of spare parts from the West.