Ukraine launched a heavy drone attack on Russia on Sunday, setting fire to a major oil refinery in the south and killing at least two people, Russian authorities said.
Kyiv's long-range strike campaign has choked off Russian fuel supplies and military logistics, in what officials describe as an attempt to bring the Kremlin to the negotiating table.
Debris from downed Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at the refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani, a town in Russia's Krasnodar region east of occupied Crimea, according to Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. Falling wreckage killed one person in Slavyansk and wounded another in a nearby village, regional authorities said. Russian authorities generally avoid admitting that facilities were hit directly, instead saying that burning fragments from downed drones caused the damage.
Images and videos circulated on Russian social media showed a thick cloud of smoke above what users said was the Slavyansk refinery. Russian officials told The Associated Press that the facility had sustained major damage and that it was unclear whether it could resume operations soon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine was behind the strike on Slavyansk. He also said a second Russian refinery, in the Yaroslavl region about 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was hit during the overnight attacks.
This week alone, swarms of Ukrainian drones struck oil facilities across Russia, as well as the VZPP-S semiconductor plant, a key producer of components for Russian ballistic missiles in Voronezh, the Dubna satellite communications center near Moscow, and a chemical plant in Tula that is being developed for Russian ammunition production.
Panic in Crimea
In the Crimean Peninsula, occupied by Russia, Ukrainian attacks caused prolonged power outages across the territory, and fuel sales were suspended, prompting Russian occupation authorities on the peninsula to declare a state of emergency on Friday.
A senior Moscow businessman told The Washington Post that the peninsula was in a state of panic and that the authorities there were at a loss. "Everyone wants to leave on foot or by bicycle, any way they can. There will be problems with food. No one can supply anything," he said. In Moscow, questions are growing over the Russian military's apparent failure to anticipate the sharp improvement in Ukraine's drone capabilities and to develop countermeasures.
"There are not enough missile defense systems to protect our infrastructure, that is clear," the businessman told the US newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It seems that no one knows what to do to increase production. This is a terrible situation that Putin and his inner circle did not expect. ... They did not prepare for a long war and are not prepared for the drone threat."
President Vladimir Putin's government held an emergency meeting earlier this week on the worsening fuel crisis after gasoline production plunged by 25% across Russia during the week of June 15 to 21, pushing dozens of regions to impose rationing.
As anxiety grows over Russia's weakening position and a marked shift in tone toward Moscow by US President Donald Trump, Russian stocks have fallen by more than 13% since the start of June, the steepest market drop since September 2022, when a Ukrainian counteroffensive forced Russia to retreat from a large strategic area in northeastern Ukraine.
"There is a state of complete uncertainty," said a former senior Russian finance official who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters. "There is a feeling that there is no good ending in sight."
The latest attacks came after a dramatic strike on Moscow last week sent clouds of black smoke over the capital as its main oil refinery went up in flames, apparently halting production until next year.
