On Friday, Kyiv struck an oil depot in its latest attack on such facilities as it sought to inflict damage far from the front , which has largely stalled.
Ukraine struck an oil facility in Russia in attack on Friday, officials from both sides said, the latest in a series of recent attacks on Russian oil facilities as Kyiv increasingly seeks to strike critical infrastructure behind Russian lines. .
Oleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of Russia's Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said that oil tanks in the city of Klints caught fire after a drone dropped ammunition on the warehouse. The drone, he added, was downed by radio-electronic interference. A Ukrainian intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military issues, said Ukraine was behind the attack.
Friday's attack was the fourth in the last three weeks against a Russian oil facility, which experts say is an attempt by Ukraine to damage Russia's military capabilities by targeting facilities that supply fuel for tanks, fighter jets and other critical assets. military equipment.
"Strikes on oil depots and oil storage facilities disrupt logistics routes and slow down hostilities," said Olena Lapenko, an energy security expert at DiXi Group, a Ukrainian think tank. "Disrupting these supplies, which are like blood to the human body, is part of a broader strategy to counter Russia on the battlefield."
These attacks are unlikely to have a significant impact on the overall state of hostilities in which Russia has been on the offensive for the past few months. But they remain important for Ukraine, which is looking for ways to inflict damage away from the front lines, which have largely stalled. Lacking sufficient weapons and troops to regain the initiative on the ground, Kyiv increasingly resorted to guerrilla tactics to disrupt Russian operations, including sabotage of rail infrastructure and ammunition depots.
Oleksandr Kamyshyn, Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, said on Thursday that an "asymmetric war" is underway. He claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack on an oil storage facility in St. Petersburg, which he said involved a domestically-made drone that flew 1,250 kilometers, or about 775 miles.
"I'm sure we'll see more and more things this year," Mr. Kamyshyn said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Although the attack on St. Petersburg did not appear to cause serious damage, images of the oil depot at Klintsi showed a large-scale fire raging among several tanks. Russia's state news agency TASS reported that the fire had spread to an area of about 1,000 square meters, or about 10,700 square feet, and that four gasoline tanks were burning.
Mr. Bogomaz, the Russian governor, announced on a social network that more than 140 firefighters are trying to put out the fire. He posted a video showing them spraying water on blackened oil tanks, which were billowing huge plumes of black smoke.
Energy infrastructure was the main theater of war. Last winter, Russia struck Ukraine's energy facilities with drones and missiles, plunging Ukrainians into cold and darkness in what was seen as Moscow's attempt to weaponize winter and demoralize the population. Ukraine managed to withstand the onslaught thanks to air defense systems supplied from the West and the round-the-clock work of engineers repairing vital equipment.
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Ukraine, on a smaller scale, has targeted Russian oil and gas infrastructure since the beginning of the conflict. But the recent spate of attacks may indicate that energy infrastructure has now become a critical target for Kyiv.
Two other drone attacks, on December 29 and January 9, led to fires at an oil refinery in southwestern Russia's Krasnodar region and at a fuel plant in Oryol , a city near Klintsy. In both cases, the Ukrainian military took responsibility in the Ukrainian mass media.
By targeting oil facilities, Ukraine is not only trying to cut off supplies to the Russian military, but is also targeting assets that generate significant revenue to support Moscow's military efforts.
Ms. Lapenko, an energy security expert, said Moscow had earned more than $400 billion from oil exports since the war began. Russia has partially managed to circumvent international sanctions by using alternative financial services and even investing in a "shadow" navy to secretly export its oil.
"We see that the imposed sanctions are not effective enough, so the aggressor still receives enough funds to wage war," said Ms. Lapenko.
In addition to strikes on oil facilities, Kyiv has carried out at least four attacks on power substations since September, some of which led to power outages for civilians, according to Russian local authorities. The Ukrainian army declares that it attacks only energy facilities that are directly related to Russia's military campaign.
Several Ukrainian officials have said in recent months that Ukraine will respond to Moscow's attacks on critical infrastructure.
"Let them begin. They will also receive a response," Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, told The Economist magazine in September, adding that his services were working on a limited campaign of deterrence and retaliation.
