President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian forces launched long-range drone strikes hitting oil facilities deep inside Russia, including refineries in Bashkortostan and Yaroslavl, as Kyiv intensified its campaign to degrade Moscow’s wartime economy amid a series of heavy aerial bombardments.
Ukraine has steadily extended its reach, bringing the war far beyond the eastern front lines and directly into Russia’s industrial heartland.
Refinery Strikes and Deep-Range Operations
Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, located more than 1,300 kilometers, or about 800 miles, from the front line, according to Apnews. A second refinery in the Yaroslavl region, nearly 700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was also hit.
Yaroslavl Gov. Mikhail Yevrayev confirmed an attack on a refinery, reporting via Telegram that drone debris struck the facility’s oil reservoirs and sparked a fire that also damaged three private houses and several residential buildings. Additional reporting indicates that earlier operations targeted facilities operated by Lukoil in the Perm region and Rosneft in Ryazan, with the Ryazan plant processing approximately 17 million tonnes of oil annually just 120 kilometers from Moscow, according to security officials and the General Staff.
“drone debris hit the facility’s oil reservoirs”
Mikhail Yevrayev, Yaroslavl Gov.
Zelenskyy also stated that Ukrainian forces hit two Russian military patrol boats in the Black Sea, alongside vessels belonging to Moscow’s shadow fleet used to evade Western oil export restrictions. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that its air defenses shot down 605 Ukrainian drones overnight across its territory, annexed Crimea, and surrounding waters.
The Domestic and Economic Toll on Moscow
The systematic targeting of energy infrastructure is designed to drain the Kremlin’s financial resources. By disrupting fuel supply chains, Kyiv aims to undermine Moscow’s wartime economy.
“Gradually, they moved the war from being an ‘accident’ somewhere, an emergency case somewhere in the corner of Russia, to Russia — even to Moscow. And that is quite a significant change.”
Mikhail Kasyanov, former Russian Prime Minister
Analysts suggest that sustained pressure on refining capacity could ripple outward, influencing global diesel and jet fuel markets and feeding into broader inflationary expectations.
Air Defenses and Civilian Casualties Across Ukraine
While long-range operations target Russian assets, communities across Ukraine continue to absorb heavy retaliatory bombardments. A missile and drone blitz in the Kyiv region killed 17 people, leading to an official day of mourning. In the first six months of the year, the United Nations office in Kyiv recorded 1,396 civilian deaths and 7,978 injuries—marking a 37% increase from the same period in the prior year, driven largely by long-range aerial attacks.
Ukraine’s leadership is urgently seeking to bolster depleted air defenses. Zelenskyy held discussions with NATO chief Mark Rutte and Finnish President Alexander Stubb to procure Patriot interceptor missiles from partner stockpiles.
Amid the ongoing aerial campaigns, Zelenskyy also met with senior officials to accelerate the domestic development of Ukraine’s own ballistic weaponry and anti-ballistic systems, a capability he noted only a tiny minority of nations have achieved.
