“We don’t need to hit the entire plant”—Ukraine’s drones go for refinery parts sanctions make hard to repair
Of 54 strikes The Washington Post examined, more than half appear to have damaged the units that start turning crude into fuel.
Ukrainian drones have targeted Russian refineries, causing a significant fuel crisis, according to a report by The Washington Post on October 11. The United States is blaming rising diesel prices primarily on Russia's war in Ukraine, while some experts attribute the issue mainly to the US conflict with Iran. The Post examined strikes between April and August, with over half of the 54 examined strikes causing damage to the desalting and distillation units, which are crucial for refining crude oil into gasoline and diesel.
More than a third of the strikes appear to have targeted secondary units that convert those compounds into jet fuel, gasoline, and liquefied petroleum gas. Between April and August, drones struck two-thirds or more of the 36 major Russian refineries tracked by S&P Global Energy, with some refineries facing multiple hits. On June 16, drones set the distillation towers of the Moscow refinery ablaze, causing the plant to remain offline until September, as reported by Kpler data.
Ukraine's drone strikes have been aimed at specific refinery parts to effectively shut down the facilities, according to a Ukrainian drone battalion commander known as Tango. The EU and US sanctions on oil-refining equipment exports to Russia since the 2022 invasion have made spare parts difficult to obtain, slowing down repairs.
Ukraine has increased the size of strike waves and incorporated decoys to lure Russian fire and waste their air-defense resources. While even a small percentage of drones penetrating Russian defenses can cause significant damage, Russia still benefits from crude oil sales and maintains its domestic fuel supply.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
