Ukraine attacked Russia’s largest oil terminal in the Baltic Sea in one of the largest overnight drone attacks in months.
Ukrainian security services targeted multiple stores, air attacks targeted the Plimosk oil port in the Leningrad region, the final station of the Baltic pipeline system, and the key hub for Russian maritime exports.
More than half of the 221 drones sent to Russian territory were intercepted in the Briansk and Smolensk regions, where Lucoil facilities are also reportedly targeted, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
Meanwhile, officials said two civilians were killed in Ukraine’s Smie area when a Russian glide bomb struck a village near the border.
Authorities in the Leningrad region said 28 drones had been defeated and fires broke out at the ships and pumping stations in Primorsk. They added that the flames have disappeared without casualties or omissions.
The port is also the heart of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of aged tankers used to skirt international sanctions.
Ukrainian security services also said the drone strike also collided with several pump stations that supply the UST-Luga terminal near the border with Estonia.
Rosatom, a Russian state energy company, has reported a drone attack on power units at the Smolensk nuclear power plant near the Belarusian border.
Russian officials said it was said that drones were intercepted and nine other regions, including Karga, Novgorod and Moscow regions, and nine drones were allegedly destroyed. Authorities claimed there were no casualties, but debris were recorded in several areas.
At Briansk, southwest of the capital, a drone crashed into a bus, causing seven people to injure, including five civilians and two military personnel, area Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said. Operations at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg have been temporarily suspended.
Moscow figures that the BBC could not independently verify suggest that the attack on Thursday night constituted one of the largest Ukrainian aerial artillery fires in more than four months.
Russia said it destroyed a record 524 drones on May 7th. In comparison, Ukrainian officials said Russia has deployed 818 drones against its territory in recent weeks.
Since the full-scale invasion of Russia’s Ukraine three and a half years ago, air attacks are said to be one of the most important things to the Leningrad region. The attack temporarily halted operations at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg.
Drone attacks across borders are becoming an increasingly prominent feature of war. In July, a sustained Ukrainian drone attack forced the temporary closure of all Moscow airports.
In recent months, Ukrainian strikes have hit refineries, fuel depots and logistics hubs hundreds of miles from the frontline to reach Russian territory, limit fuel supplies and reduce costs.
These strikes have been going on for over a year, but in August it escalated sharply, with over a dozen refineries hits. Coupled with Western sanctions, the damage has proven to be increasingly difficult to repair.
During these attacks, Ukraine invalidated 20% of Russia’s oil refining capabilities during August, although the White House last month downplayed the cause of the damage, citing “unplanned repairs.”
However, Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets warned this week that gasoline supplies were “critical” and that drivers in the Russian Far East were reporting kilometres of lines, distribution and rising prices.
The strike also collided with the Druzhba Pipeline, disrupting exports to Hungary and Slovakia.
Moscow has stepped up missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy facilities over the summer as US-led efforts to reach a peace agreement collapsed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that there had been a “suspension” in peace talks and accused Ukraine’s European allies of “hindering” the process.
The attack on Thursday night was performed every four years ahead of the start of a major joint military exercise between Russia and Ali Belarus on Friday.
However, this time it comes days after many Russian drones were shot down and fell in Poland, where Warsaw called for an unprecedented invasion of its airspace.
