Reuben Johnson
Key Points and Summary – Ukraine’s latest long-range drone strike on Russia’s Kirishi refinery underscores Kyiv’s strategy to choke the oil revenues and fuels that sustain Moscow’s war.
-The attack, nearly 500 miles from Ukraine, reportedly shut a key processing unit handling about 40% of Kirishi’s output, highlighting growing reach and precision.
-It followed a strike on Primorsk, Russia’s largest Baltic oil port, and joins dozens of refinery hits that have forced shutdowns, rationing, and gas lines.
-Kyiv argues refineries are legitimate military targets; Moscow calls them civilian. As repairs drag on, Russia’s battlefield tempo and budget feel pressure from fires far behind the front.
Ukraine’s Drones Just Hit a Giant Russian Refinery—Here’s Why It Matters
WARSAW, POLAND – Last month, a director in the Polish defense industry shared with me a simple equation to understand Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“As long as Russian President Vladimir Putin is able to extract and sell oil, or refine it and sell the petrol produced, this war is never going to end,” he said. “Whether or not life for people in Russia is difficult – and even if it becomes worse than it already is – no one is going to be bothered. It all comes down to Russia’s ability to maintain its oil industry.”
It is, in fact, specifically that industry that Ukraine’s military is trying to degrade and disrupt, one drone attack at a time.
On the night of Sept. 14, Ukrainian drones attacked the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia’s St. Petersburg region. The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff confirmed the successful strike.
The Kirishi refinery is one of the largest facilities of its kind in Russia, with an overall processing capacity of more than 17 million tons of oil per year. Russia’s air defense forces intercepted three drones in the area of the facility, according to Leningrad Oblast Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.
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