Russia hits power plants; Ukraine targets refineries
As Russian missiles streaked through the skies above Ukraine before dawn Saturday, once again targeting the nation's battered energy grid in a broad and complex bombardment, Ukrainian drones were flying in the other direction, taking aim at vital oil and gas refineries and other targets inside Russia.
The Ukrainian air force said its air defense teams had intercepted 21 of the 34 Russian cruise and ballistic missiles fired from land, air and sea-based systems, but the attack caused extensive damage to four thermal power plants and other crucial parts of the power grid in three regions.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said it had shot down 66 Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar region, which is just across the Kerch Strait in southern Russia, east of the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Veniamin Kondratyev, head of the regional government, said the Ukrainian drones had targeted two oil refineries, a bitumen plant, and a military airfield in Kuban.
The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, said the Ukrainian military operation had targeted the Kushchevsk airfield and the Ilsky and Slavyansk oil refineries. The airfield housed “dozens of military aircraft, radars and electronic warfare devices,” the agency said in a statement, adding, “The SBU continues to effectively target military and infrastructural facilities behind enemy lines, reducing Russia's potential for waging war.”
The Kremlin tightly controls information about Ukrainian attacks, often making it difficult to assess their impact, and it was unclear how much damage the drone strikes caused.
Russia has also outlawed criticism of its war effort, aggressively stifling any voice deemed critical of the military and arresting hundreds of people as part of a widespread crackdown on dissent. On Friday, Russian authorities arrested a journalist from the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Sergei Mingazov, for
reposting information on social media at the outset of the war about Russian atrocities, according to Russian officials and his lawyer, Konstantin Bubon.
Although the Russian authorities routinely deny or play down the impact
of Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, the attacks on oil and gas facilities have been hard to hide. Britain's military intelligence agency estimated last month that such strikes had disrupted at least 10% of Russia's oil refinery capacity. On
March 1, the Kremlin imposed a six-month ban on gasoline exports in what appeared to be an effort to avoid shortages and prevent spikes in domestic prices.
Ukraine has vowed to increase attacks inside Russia, using its expanding fleet of domestically produced long-range attack drones, even as the strikes on oil and gas infrastructure have stoked tensions between Kyiv and Washington. The Biden administration has publicly condemned the attacks, worried that they could lead to even greater Russian retaliation and drive up prices in global energy markets.
“Those attacks could have a knock-on effect in terms of the global energy situation,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, told Congress this month. “Ukraine is better served in going after tactical and operational targets that can directly influence the current fight.”
About one-third of Russia's national budget comes from oil and gas, and Ukrainian officials have said that attacks on the facilities strike at the heart of the Kremlin's wartime economy. They also hope, over time, to undermine Russia's ability to wage war, since refined oil products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel are essential for keeping any large army moving.