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Ukrainian drones damage Russian oil refineries in 2nd day of attacks

Ukraine struck Russian oil refineries in a 2nd day of heavy drone attacks on Wednesday, causing a fire at Rosneft's greatest refinery in among the most serious attacks against Russia's energy sector in recent months.

Oil costs increased 2% partly due to issues about supply disturbance following the attacks which President Vladimir Putin stated were an attempt to disrupt his nation's governmental election this week.

Russia and Ukraine have actually both utilized drones to strike critical infrastructure, military setups and troop concentrations in their more than two-year war, with Kyiv stepping up attacks on Russian refineries and energy facilities in current months.

A day after seriously damaging Lukoil's NORSI refinery in Nizhny Novgorod, Ukrainian drone attacks struck refineries in the Rostov and Ryazan areas, Russian officials said.

In Ryazan, 180 km (110 miles) from Moscow, a drone attack caused a fire at Rosneft's refinery, Russia's seventh biggest and there were preliminary reports of injuries, governor Pavel Malkov stated. In a later update he said the fire had been extinguished.

2 sources familiar with the situation informed that the refinery had been required to close down two main oil refining systems. Rosneft did not respond to a request for remark.

In Rostov, there were no casualties however the Novoshakhtinsk refinery was required to stop production, regional governor Vasily Golubev stated. Two sources later on informed that operations had resumed at the refinery.

A Ukrainian source informed the drone attacks were carried out by Ukraine's SBU security service. We are systematically implementing a comprehensive, calculated technique to minimize Russia's financial capacity, the source said.

Ukrainian defence forces, the SBU source included, also conducted overnight drone attacks on a Russian airbase in Buturlinovka and a military airfield in Voronezh area.

Strikes on oil refineries - a crucial source of Russia's earnings - have the prospective to lower the country's output of gasoline and diesel and push up prices.

Putin, in remarks published on Wednesday, accused Kyiv of attempts to hinder the March 15-17 governmental election through its attacks.

The primary goal, I believe about it, is to - if not to disrupt the governmental elections in Russia - then at least in some way hinder the typical procedure of expressing the will of people, Putin told Russia's RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state tv in a wide-ranging interview.

Putin, who launched a full-blown invasion of Ukraine 2 years ago, is nearly particular to win the vote.

DRONE WAR

Russia's RIA state news agency stated four Ukrainian drones attacked the Ryazan plant in the early hours of Wednesday, resulting in a 175 square metre blaze.

Video video footage geo-located revealed black smoke billowing above flames at the plant, which improves about 12.7 million metric tons of oil a year, or 4.6% of the Russian total, according to industry sources.

It represents about 6.4% of Russia's gas production, 4.1% of diesel, 7.7% of fuel oil and 8% of air travel fuel, according to the sources. Full Russian production figures are no longer published.

Russian media said around 60 drones had been ruined over Russian sovereign territory over numerous hours on Wednesday.

(source: Reuters)