KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine said that its long-range strikes have neutralized more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity, hampering Moscow’s ability to supply its forces during its 4 1/2-year-old invasion.
The Defense Ministry said Sunday that recent strikes on refineries in cities including Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ust-Luga, Perm, Saratov and Syzran had put 51% of Russia’s oil refining capacity out of action. The claim could not be independently verified.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified their aerial assaults as progress along the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) front line has largely ground to a halt.
Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked refineries from Moscow to Siberia, sparking a widespread fuel crisis in Russia earlier this year that forced authorities to restrict gasoline sales.
Russian officials have not publicly revealed any data on damage caused to the country’s oil infrastructure. However, President Vladimir Putin said in a rare admission Thursday that the strikes had caused Russia to lose roughly 1% of its gross domestic product.
“They started attacking oil refineries and openly declared the goal of damaging our economy. Did they achieve their goal? Partially,” Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai Club forum of international foreign policy experts.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said that analysts from Ukraine’s intelligence services, the General Staff, and the Defense Ministry itself had assessed the effects of the strikes.
“Fifty-one percent of struck refining capacity is a significant blow to the enemy’s economy, to its ability to carry out aggression and supply its troop groupings. Our deep strikes continue to bring the war to Russian territory,” he said.
A Russian drone attack killed one person and injured six more in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said late Sunday. Vehicles and an administrative building were set alight and apartment buildings were damaged, he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday that it had struck an electrical substation in the Kharkiv region, in addition to energy and port infrastructure and maritime vessels used by Ukraine’s military.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 205 drones overnight into Monday, of which 172 were shot down or suppressed.
Ukraine has struggled in recent weeks to fend off Russia’s intensified aerial attacks on cities that include ballistic missiles and high-flying jet-powered drones.
Kyiv has suffered under repeated air raid alerts, punctuated by loud explosions from drone and missile strikes. The onslaught aims to terrorize civilians, officials and analysts say, and break their will to resist Russia’s full-scale invasion since 2022.
Presidential adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said on social media that 12 automated turrets had been installed in Kyiv to counter jet-powered Shahed drones, with more planned. He described the turrets as machine guns controlled by artificial intelligence to shoot down Shaheds.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 199 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, as well as the illegally annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea.
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