Ukrainian drones struck a major refinery deep inside Russia, military officials said Thursday, the fourth in three days in Kyivās monthslong campaign toĀ choke Moscowās vital oil sector.
Russia is one of the worldās biggest energy producers, with oil providing an economic mainstay as its army tries to push deeper intoĀ UkraineĀ in a slow and costly advance more than four years after Moscow launched itsĀ full-scale invasion.
The attacks have dented Russiaās refining capacity, bringingĀ shortages at gas stations. Kyiv officials say the onslaught seeks to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a peace deal. There isĀ no signĀ that strategy is working.
The refinery targeted is one of Russia’s biggest facilities
Ukraineās General Staff said that its forces struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refining and petrochemical complex in Russiaās republic of Bashkortostan overnight, causing a fire at the facility.
The complex, located southeast of Moscow about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Ukraineās border, is one of Russiaās largest oil refining and petrochemical facilities, the General Staff said in a Telegram post.
The plant processes up to 74 million barrels of oil annually, producing gasoline, diesel fuel and other products, it said.
Russiaās Bashkortostan governor, Radiy Khabirov, said only that a drone attack wounded two civilians and started a fire in an industrial zone of Salavat.
Wildberries, Russiaās biggest online retailer whose giant warehouses have repeatedly been struck by Ukrainian drones, said a fire started at one of its facilities in the Salavat industrial zone after the overnight attack. The company said the facility was evacuated but that goods were not being stored there.
The attack came a day after Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and dronesĀ blitzed a major Russian naval baseĀ on the Black Sea coast.
Elsewhere, four explosive experts from Russiaās Emergency Ministry and a security guard were killed Thursday after an unspecified Ukrainian weapon exploded in Sevastopol, a port city in illegally annexed Crimea, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev said.
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They were inspecting the site of a Ukrainian attack when āan enemy weapon detonated,ā he said.
It was not possible to independently verify either sideās reports.
Russian official says another refinery’s repairs could take six months
Meanwhile, a Russian refinery in Orsk that was hit by Ukrainian drones earlier this week has suspended operations, Orenburg region Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev said Thursday.
He said that ākey infrastructure, which cannot be restored at this timeā was struck, including foreign equipment, and ātaking (international) sanctions into account,ā the repairs could take up to six months, Solntsev said in a rare public admission in Russia of theĀ problems Ukrainian attacks are causing.
Ukraineās General Staff had reported striking the Orsk refinery, in Russiaās Orenburg region near the border with Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.
Russian drone hits a Ukrainian passenger train, killing two
Russia has responded byĀ hammeringĀ UkraineĀ with ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones and glide bombs, all of which are powerful and hard to intercept. The strikes have killed more than 16,000 civilians since the war began, according to the United Nations.
Russian attacks featuring 133 long-range strike drones killed at least four people and wounded eight others acrossĀ UkraineĀ overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, officials said.
A jet-powered Shahed drone struck a passenger train in the southern Odesa region, killing the engineer and his assistant, Ukraineās state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, said Thursday.
A Russian drone killed two men on Wednesday evening in the southern city of Kherson, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Ukraine makes little headway on obtaining Patriot missiles
UkraineĀ desperately wants more U.S.-madeĀ Patriot interceptor missilesĀ that can counter Russiaās ballistic missiles, but stocks of the air defense system reportedly are low because of theĀ Iran war.
UkraineĀ so far this year has two and a half times fewer Patriot interceptors than in 2025, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he makes calls every day to try and source some more.
He said in an interview with CNN broadcast Wednesday evening, parts of which he posted on social media, that he is asking the United States to sell five per cent of the interceptor missiles they have in stock to help UkraineĀ make it through next winter, when Russiaās strikes focus on the power grid.
He has so far obtained just one per cent, he said.
In the first half of this year, European countries paid U.S. defense companies at least three billion euros ($3.5 billion) for military equipment they sent to Ukraine, according to a report Thursday by Germanyās Kiel Institute, which tracks assistance to Kyiv.
The Trump administration wonāt provide its own aid toĀ UkraineĀ but is allowing other countries to buy U.S. equipment that is sent on.
Military aid provided toĀ Ukraine in the first half of 2026 was close to last yearās level, the Kiel Institute said, but financial and humanitarian aid was 41 per cent lower than in 2025.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
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