Ukraine strikes Russian oil facilities

The Ukrainian forces have targeted civilian energy infrastructure in Russia’s Smolensk Region with drones, local governor Vasily Anokhin reported on Wednesday morning.

“Our region is again under attack by Ukrainian UAVs,” Anokhin wrote on Telegram around 5am local time, adding that the Russian air defenses were responding to the raid.

The drone attack targeted “civilian fuel and energy facilities” and resulted in several fires in the Smolensky and Yartsevsky districts, according to the official. The firefighters are already working to tackle the blaze, Anokhin added, urging the residents to remain calm.

Smolensk Region is around 300 kilometers southeast of Moscow and borders Belarus. The distance to the border with Ukraine is some 400km.

Ukraine already attempted to bomb another undisclosed oil and energy facility in Smolensk last week. While the drones were downed, debris fell onto a storage unit of oil and lubricants, resulting in a small fire, according to Anokhin.

On Saturday, Russian air defenses intercepted several Ukrainian drone raids across the western part of the country, destroying some 50 drones over the border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk, as well as deeper into Russia in Smolensk, Ryazan, Kaluga, and Moscow Regions.

Since January, Ukraine has launched a series of long-range attacks on Russian energy facilities, including oil depots and refineries, using kamikaze drones. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has argued that the strikes have been meant to impress Kiev’s Western backers amid a lack of progress on the front line.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that US Vice President Kamala Harris had met privately with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in February, telling him to refrain from targeting Russian oil refineries. President Joe Biden’s administration reportedly believes that such attacks would raise global energy prices and provoke massive Russian retaliation.

According to the media outlet, the Ukrainian head of state “brushed off the recommendation.” Despite the US becoming more and more insistent over the following weeks, Kiev doubled down on its strategy.

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