Russia burns as Ukraine strikes oil refineries in blow to Putin | World | News

Two oil refineries in Russia have been attacked in a humiliating blow to Vladimir Putin’s war machine, Ukraine claims. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted footage on Thursday (August 6) showing huge plumes of thick black smoke billowing over what he said were facilities hundreds of miles inside Russia.

He wrote on social media that Russia‘s Bashneft-Novoil refinery was hit in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, some 807 miles from the frontline, and the Slavneft-YANOS refinery was struck in Russia‘s Yaroslavl region, about 434 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. The claims and video have not been independently verified.

Kyiv has been keeping up a months-long campaign to undermine Moscow’s wartime economy and embarrass the Kremlin.

Repeated strikes have caused fuel shortages and rattled Russians while heartening Ukrainians, who are enduring regular Russian barrages which Kyiv’s weakened air defences have been struggling to counter.

Ukrainian forces also hit two Russian military patrol boats in the Black Sea, according to Mr Zelensky.

Vessels belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, which Moscow uses to evade Western sanctions on its oil exports, were also targeted.

Ukraine‘s leader did not provide details about the vessels or the extent of the damage.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that its air defences shot down 605 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions overnight, as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the Black Sea and Azov Sea.

Meanwhile, Russian drone and glide bomb attacks across Ukraine killed at least three civilians and wounded 22 others, authorities said on Thursday.

Ukraine’s allies have scrambled to find more vital air defences for the country. Russian forces have, in recent weeks, battered Ukraine with ballistic missiles.

Officials in Ukraine say only the US-made Patriot air defence system can stop them, but the Iran war has drained stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles, leaving Ukraine exposed to Russian bombardments.

Mr Zelensky has spoken to NATO chief Mark Rutte and Finnish President Alexander Stubb about urgently procuring interceptors from stockpiles.