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Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) revealed its latest attacks on Saturday targeting Russian oil infrastructure, from refineries to pipelines, as Kyiv looks to intensify its counteroffensives against the sector it says funds the Kremlin’s invasion.
The attacks are part of the Ukrainian army’s tactic of “bringing the war home to ordinary Russians”, without endangering civilian lives.
It aims to target sectors and industries which would affect ordinary Russian civilians, such as the energy used to power and heat their homes, or disrupting flight operations at airports via using drones.
It is an effort to incite pressure from within against Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks and end his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, well into its fourth year.
Following an operation carried out on Friday by the HUR of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, three sections of the Koltsevoye oil pipeline in the Moscow capital region, “which supplied the Russian occupation army”, were destroyed, the Ukrainian special services reported in an official statement.
“The anti-drone device and the “protection” of the enemy installation by paramilitary guards proved ineffective: the three sections through which the attacker was transporting petrol, diesel and paraffin exploded simultaneously and successfully; the pipeline was put out of service,” said the statement.
The main Koltsevoye pipeline is 400 kilometres long. The fuel transported by this pipeline comes from refineries across various regions, including Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.
The Koltsevoye pipeline is responsible for pumping up to 3 million tonnes of paraffin, 2.8 million tonnes of diesel and around 1.6 million tonnes of petrol annually, making it one of the Kremlin’s largest and most integral energy delivery infrastructure.
Ukrainian drones engulf Moscow
Kyiv is continuing to launch barrages of drones both for offensive and disruptive missions into Russia.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 98 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory late on Friday.
According to the ministry, the majority of them – 45 drones – were shot down over the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine. But Ukrainian attacks were also carried out in the regions of Samara, Moscow, Tula and elsewhere.
The governor of the western Russian Tula region, Dmitry Milyaev, announced that a drone had fallen in Tula without causing any injuries or material damage.
Russia launches more than 200 drones
Russian attacks are also continuing to pummel Ukraine as Moscow continues to strike its neighbour daily, resisting global calls, championed by US President Donald Trump, to halt attacks and come to the negotiating table to broker an immediate and lasting peace.
Ukrainian air defence units say at least 223 drones were launched into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, with around 140 of them Iranian-made Shahed strike drones. A number of missiles, including ballistic missiles, were also fired into Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces added that they were able to successfully thwart 206 of them aerially before reaching their targets. 17 drones did however strike their targets across seven regions, according to the Ukrainian air force.
At least one person was killed and more than a dozen others were injured, in a Russian missile strike on Mykolaiv, according to Vitaly Kim, head of the regional military administration. Among the injured was a child, who sustained moderate wounds and is being treated by medical professionals.
Initial reports suggest that the strike was carried out by an Iskander ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead. The attack caused damage to a petrol station and civilian vehicles.
