Ukraine Hits Ufa Refinery; Russian Drones Breach NATO Airspace
Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, near Ufa, sparking a fire, as Kyiv pressed a long-range campaign that has hit most of Russia’s refineries and caused fuel shortages, the Institute for the Study of War reported. Russia answered with a massive combined drone-and-missile barrage. Russian drones penetrated Moldovan and Romanian airspace, and a naval drone was destroyed near a Romanian gas platform.
The Ufa strike, more than 1,000km from the front, underlines the growing reach of Ukraine’s domestically built long-range drones, which have turned Russia’s refining industry into a strategic target and squeezed fuel supplies in several regions. Moscow’s reply, an accumulated salvo of ballistic and cruise missiles, follows a pattern of stockpiling munitions to maximise civilian damage, ISW assesses. The incursion of drones into Moldovan and Romanian airspace — the latter a NATO member — shows the Kremlin accepts the risk of spillover onto alliance territory. Watch NATO’s response and whether the refinery strikes keep denting Russian fuel output.