A Ukrainian serviceman operates a reconnaissance drone outside the town of Bakhmut, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near a frontline region of Donetsk, Ukraine, on May 25, 2023.
stringer | Reuters
Ukraine attacked pipeline facilities deep in Russia on Saturday with a series of drone strikes, including at a station servicing the vast Druzhba pipeline that sends crude from West Siberia to Europe, according to Russian media.
Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia have increased in intensity in recent weeks, with the New York Times reporting that US intelligence believes Ukraine was behind a drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month.
Ukraine has not publicly acknowledged launching attacks against targets inside Russia. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
In the Tver region, which is just northwest of Moscow, two drones attacked a station serving the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline, one of the world’s largest oil pipelines, the Kommersant newspaper said.
The Tver local council said a drone crashed near the town of Erokhino, some 500 km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The Baza Telegram channel, which has good sources among Russia’s security services, said the drones attacked a station that services the Druzhba pipeline.
Druzhba, built by the Soviet Union, has the capacity to pump more than 2 million barrels per day (bpd), but has been severely underutilized after Europe tried to reduce its reliance on Russian energy after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year.
Russia’s pipeline operator Transneft said earlier this month that a filling point in Druzhba, in a Russian region bordering Ukraine, had been attacked.
drone battle
In its daily briefing on the Ukraine war, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours and intercepted two long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles that were supplied to Ukraine by Britain.
Russia also said it had intercepted shorter-range US-made HARM and HIMARS missiles. The ministry did not say where those interceptions occurred, but reported fighting at points along the front line.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield accounts of either side.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. kyiv officials previously said that Western-supplied weapons would be used exclusively against Russian forces inside Ukraine.
In the Pskov region of western Russia, two drones triggered an explosion that damaged an oil pipeline administration building, local governor Mikhail Vedernikov said. The incident occurred near the town of Litvinovo, less than 10 km (6 miles) from Russia’s border with Belarus.
“Provisionally, the building was damaged as a result of an attack by two UAVs,” Vedernikov said.
In a separate incident, a construction worker was killed near the Ukrainian border in the Kursk region due to Ukrainian shelling, the local governor said.