Ukraine launched a wave of overnight drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, hitting two major oil refineries and targeting vessels in the Black Sea. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strikes on Thursday, identifying the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan republic and the Slavneft-Yanos refinery in the Yaroslavl region as the primary targets.
Bashneft-Novoil sits approximately 1,300 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Slavneft-Yanos is around 700 kilometres away. Both distances underline just how far Ukraine’s drone capability now reaches into Russian territory.
The governor of Yaroslavl region, Mikhail Evraev, confirmed the Slavneft-Yanos refinery was on fire after what he described as the largest enemy drone attack the region had experienced. He said 93 drones were shot down over the region overnight, with falling debris igniting storage tanks at the refinery. Four people were injured. BBC Verify confirmed multiple videos and images showing large plumes of smoke rising from the site, with at least four fires visible in verified footage.
Authorities in Bashkortostan made no public comment on the attack at the time of publication.
Zelensky framed the strikes as a deliberate effort to cut the oil revenues Moscow uses to fund its war effort. Two military patrol boats and shadow fleet vessels operating in the Black Sea were also struck, according to the Ukrainian president. These are tankers Russia uses to illegally export sanctioned oil.
“Russia must choose peace,” Zelensky said, arguing that Ukrainian strikes were strengthening the conditions for diplomacy rather than undermining them.
Russia’s Attacks
Russia did not absorb the night quietly either. Five people were killed in Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. Three died in the town of Balakliya when drones struck private residential homes. Two more were killed at a train station in Lozova. Eight others were injured in the Lozova attack. Russia’s military said its overnight operations targeted Ukrainian fuel, energy and transport facilities, as well as drone storage sites, and claimed its forces intercepted or shot down 605 Ukrainian drones.
The pattern is now consistent on both sides. Energy infrastructure is the target. Civilians are bearing the cost. The front line, meanwhile, remains almost entirely static as every mediation effort to end the war has failed to produce a breakthrough.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. More than three years later, the war shows no sign of ending. It is simply finding new depths to reach.
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