Ukraine knocks out Russian refinery in major attack By Reuters

By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine struck targets in Russia with dozens of drones and rockets on Tuesday in an attack that inflicted heavy damage on a major oil refinery and sought to pierce the land borders of the world’s largest nuclear power of the world with armed agents.

Both Russia and Ukraine have used drones to strike critical infrastructure, military installations and troop concentrations in their more than two-year war, with Kiev striking Russian refineries and energy facilities in recent months.

Russia said Ukrainian proxies tried to cross the Russian border in at least seven attacks that Russian forces repelled. Russian-speaking Ukrainian delegates said they had crossed the border, a claim denied by Russia.

In one of the largest Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia to date, Moscow said it shot down 25 Ukrainian drones over regions including Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Tula and Oryol. Waves of drone strikes continued throughout the day, the Defense Ministry said.

Russian officials have reported attacks on energy facilities, including a fire at Lukoil’s NORSI refinery and a destroyed drone on the outskirts of the city of Kirishi, home to Russia’s second-largest oil refinery.

Gleb Nikitin, governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, posted a photo of a fire truck next to the NORSI refinery and said emergency services were working to put out the fire there.

“A fuel and energy complex was attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles,” Nikitin said on Telegram.

Industry sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity that NORSI’s main crude distillation unit (AVT-6) was damaged in the attack, meaning at least half of the refinery’s production was disrupted. Lukoil declined to comment.

According to industry sources, NORSI refines about 15.8 million tons of Russian crude oil per year, or 5.8% of total refined crude oil.

According to industry sources, it also refines about 4.9 million tons of gasoline, 11% of the Russian total, 6.4% of diesel, 5.6% of fuel oil and 7.4% of jet fuel of the country.

HIT RUSSIAN ENERGY

Targeting Russian oil facilities is a concern for President Vladimir Putin as he faces the West over Ukraine, with domestic gasoline prices sensitive ahead of the March 15-17 presidential election.

On March 1, Russia imposed a six-month ban on gasoline exports.

Along with Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States, Russia has vast energy reserves but, since oil was discovered in the wilds of Western Siberia in the 1960s, it has often relied on Western technology to exploit and refine its crude oil.

The Kremlin has said the Russian military is doing everything necessary and that what it calls the military operation in Ukraine will continue.

Russia says it has destroyed more than 15,000 drones launched from Ukraine since the war began.

ATTACK ON THE BORDER

Russia said its forces prevented incursions from Ukraine into the western regions of Belgorod and Kursk and inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers, after Ukraine-based armed groups said they launched cross-border raids.

“Ukrainian terrorist formations, supported by tanks and armored fighting vehicles, attempted to simultaneously invade the territory of the Russian Federation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

At least two Ukraine-based armed groups, claiming to be made up of Russians opposed to the Kremlin, said they launched an incursion across Russia’s western border on Tuesday.

Russia denied that the groups, which Moscow considers puppets of the Ukrainian army and the US Central Intelligence Agency, had penetrated its territory, but said the border had been attacked in several places.

The TASS news agency cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying Russian forces had killed 100 people and destroyed several armored vehicles as they fought off attempted incursions.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine fired eight RM-70 rockets and one Tochka-U missile over the Belgorod region.