(Oct 31): Ukraine’s drone forces struck a complex of refineries deep within Russia, even as Kyiv and other parts of the country struggled to restore electricity following overnight Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

Kyiv on Saturday targeted the Bashneft refineries in Ufa in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, said a person familiar with the incident, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information.

Russian officials haven’t confirmed any damage. Rosneft PJSC, the refineries’ parent company, didn’t immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comments outside normal business hours.

The Ufa region is home to three refineries, Novoil, Ufimsky and Ufaneftekhim. Their total processing capacity is 23.5 million tons of oil per year, or more than 470,000 barrels per day. 

Ufa is about 1,750km (1,100 miles) northeast of Kyiv and 1,600km east of Moscow. Regular attacks on the facilities this year demonstrate Ukraine’s growing ability to reach far into Russian territory. 

Facing relentless strikes on its own energy infrastructure, Ukraine has regularly targeted Russia’s oil industry in an effort to curb the Kremlin’s ability to finance its war. 

Ukraine on Friday struck a major Rosneft PJSC oil refinery in the Samara region, the first confirmed attack on a Russian fuel plant in about two weeks. There had been no confirmed strikes on Russian refineries since Oct 15, a pause that coincided with calls for calm from President Donald Trump as he sought to lower US fuel prices ahead of midterm elections.

Kyiv’s forces have continued long-range drone and missile strikes on other sites in Russia, thought, targeting military and industrial facilities, data centres and logistics hubs, chemical plants and airports.

Ukraine’s General Staff also reported a drone and missile strike on the Kamensky plant in Russia’s Rostov region on Saturday. The facility produces rocket fuel for aviation weapons systems, according to Ukraine. 

Russia has also kept up air barrages against Ukrainian infrastructure, from Black Sea ports to energy assets, bridges and railroads, as well as attacks on civilian targets that saw Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Friday seek an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

Strikes by Kremlin forces on Thursday killed at least 20 people and injured more than 80, Sybiha said.

About 200,000 households in Ukraine’s Dnipro and the surrounding region are without power following strikes on electricity infrastructure overnight into Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. More than 80,000 households in the Kyiv region are also without electricity, he said.

Russian “shahed” drones struck a combined heat and power plant in Kyiv, while in the Dnipro region, four electrical substations were hit in a single night, Zelenskyy said. Railway infrastructure in Dnipro and Kharkiv in Ukraine’s northeast was also hit, along with a gas distribution facility in the Dnipro region. 

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had struck transport infrastructure facilities used by the Ukrainian armed forces, drone and ground-based robotic systems storage and launch sites, and ammunition depots.

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