Over 360 Ukrainian drones attacked Russia Saturday night, with a fire, since extinguished, breaking out at Russia’s key Kirishi oil refinery in northwestern Russia. No injuries were reported. The refinery is one of Russia’s two largest.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported shooting down at least 361 drones, including four guided aerial bombs and one American-made HIMARS missile.
Ukraine has reported “a successful strike,” according to Mandiner, while Russia is disputing any actual impact.
Kirishi refines approximately 17.7 million tons of Russian crude annually, or 355,000 barrels per day. This amounts to 6.4 percent of the country’s total production.
“The most effective sanctions, the sanctions that work the fastest, are the fires in Russian oil refineries, terminals and storage facilities,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message on Sunday.
He claims the attacks have significantly impacted Russian oil production and thus also hurt Putin’s war chest.
Zelensky also said that Ukraine is happy to share its drone countermeasures with its NATO partners, especially after Russian unmanned aerial vehicles violated the airspace of both Poland and Romania in recent days.
“Everyone sees that the Russians are looking for an opportunity to expand the war to Poland and the Baltic states, the Russian army is also testing Romania,” he said.
Zelensky also touted that Ukraine has “significantly more cost-effective, massive and systematic solutions.”
In the latest Russian drone incursion, Romanian F-16s tracked a drone clearly having entered Romanian airspace on Saturday. The country’s defense ministry stated that it “firmly condemns the irresponsible actions of the Russian Federation and emphasizes that they represent a new challenge to regional security and stability in the Black Sea area.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian MP Oleg Dunda, a member of Zelensky’s party, has told Mandiner that Hungary should not underestimate Ukraine, adding that “the victorious Ukraine will have one of the strongest armies in the world. So it is in Hungary’s own interest to somehow reconcile after the war.”
Dunda also claimed that Putin wants to “expand Russian influence in Europe and return to the Warsaw Pact. Therefore, compromise is unthinkable.” He also feels NATO is grossly unprepared for a Russian attack on the Baltic states, with many more troops required on the ground.
As to Ukraine, the MP says: “We are still underestimated. Not only by our enemies, but even by our allies. We can fight for years to come.”
According to a recent survey in Ukraine, 59 percent of respondents would now support negotiations. Dunda claims that even these respondents believe “we must receive security guarantees, that the current line of the front must be taken as a basis, and that any further transfer of territory is excluded.”
