Ukraine Says It Struck Russian Oil Sites and 12 Shadow-Fleet Tankers

Ukrainian forces struck several Russian oil depots, a pumping station and 12 tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet in recent days, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s military said Thursday.

Zelenskyy called the attacks part of a “long-range sanctions plan,” which he said answers Russia’s decision to drag out the war and keep up its attacks. The strikes hit facilities that support Russia’s oil sector, he said.

SSU forces struck two oil depots — one in Stavropol and one in Tver — each about 500 kilometers from the front line, according to Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s Defense Forces hit a reserve fuel storage site roughly 800 kilometers from the front.

Two targets lay far deeper inside Russia. An oil pumping station in Ufa sits nearly 1,500 kilometers from Ukraine’s border, Zelenskyy said. An oil loading terminal in the Rostov region, about 200 kilometers from the front, was struck as well.

Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces reported a separate wave of attacks at sea. Its operators struck 12 more tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet in the Sea of Azov overnight on July 9, the force said, crediting the 1st Separate Center, the 20th Separate K-2 Brigade, the 412th Separate Nemesis Brigade and the 413th Separate Regiment.

The 1st Separate Center also hit a cargo ship, and the 412th struck a tugboat, according to the statement. Over 96 hours, the force said, its units struck 35 enemy vessels in all.

Russia keeps exporting oil through the shadow fleet despite international sanctions and uses the revenue to fund its war, the force said. It said it is working to disrupt that network and squeeze the Russian economy.

Every strike was coordinated by the Deep Strike Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces Grouping, the military said, and it pointed to an online dashboard for detailed figures.

Zelenskyy thanked the troops and said Ukraine offered Russia a way to end the war long ago.

Each day Russia prolongs the war should bring the reality of war back to where it began — to Russia. — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Thursday’s strikes extend a Ukrainian effort Zelenskyy calls “long-range sanctions” — drone and missile strikes on Russian refineries, fuel depots and weapons plants far from the front.

A day earlier, Zelenskyy said Ukraine reached the Saratov region, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan — about 800, 1,400 and 1,500 kilometers from the front line — along with the Voronezh region, roughly 300 kilometers from the border. “The Saratov oil refinery was hit,” he said, adding that Special Operations Forces struck a refinery in Tatarstan.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the Ufa refineries in Bashkortostan, the same area as Thursday’s pumping-station strike. Earlier drone attacks hit the Omsk Oil Refinery about 2,500 kilometers from Ukraine’s border — which Ukraine’s General Staff called Russia’s most powerful, with capacity above 21 million tons a year — and set the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim and Bashneft-Novoil refineries in Ufa ablaze, according to the Security Service.

Russia has often confirmed the drone attacks while disputing the damage, its Defense Ministry reporting scores of drones downed on strike nights. Several of Ukraine’s claims could not be independently verified.