Russia, Ukraine exchange fire, strike each others' refinery and gas targets

By Bloomberg News

Russia and Ukraine exchanged fire on energy facilities overnight, with an oil refinery damaged in Russia’s Krasnodar region while Ukraine sustained a missile barrage on gas infrastructure and other targets.
 

Russia reported a Ukrainian drone attack on the Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, the first such strike since early this month. 

The state-run news agency Tass said the strike caused a fire, which partially suspended refinery operations. The plant was hit by 10 drones, Tass said, citing the refinery’s representative. Russia’s defense ministry said 66 drones were intercepted and downed over the Krasnodar region.  

UAVs from the Security Service of Ukraine targeted the Kushchevsk military airfield and the Slavyansk and Ilsky refineries in the Krasnodar region, according to a person with knowledge of the operation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. Russian officials and media haven’t referred to the Ilsky facility.

The Slavyansk refinery is capable of processing 4 million tons of oil a year and is one of the closest facilities to war zone in eastern Ukraine. It was previously hit by drones in March along with many other large Russian refineries. Some of the affected facilities are still processing less than before the attacks.

US warned Ukraine that attacks on Russian oil refineries were impacting global energy markets and urged Kyiv to focus on military targets. The most recent drone attack on a Russian oil refinery happened on April 2.  

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, some 21 Russian missiles of various types were intercepted overnight out of 34 fired, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram. Poland’s army scrambled jets twice when Russian missiles flew close to its border.

Targets included energy facilities in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions in the west, and the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, the national grid operator Ukrenergo said in statement on Facebook.  

State-run Naftogaz said gas infrastructure facilities came under attack but that service to clients and to Ukrainian consumers weren’t interrupted. 

Separately, Der Spiegel magazine reported that Ukraine has asked Germany for an additional 812 Vector surveillance drones, on top of the 212 the government in Berlin has already provided.

The vertical take-off and landing drones are manufactured by Quantum-Systems GmbH, a Munich-based company that opened a second facility in Ukraine this month at a ceremony attended by Germany Economy Minister Robert Habeck.