Russia reports 144 drone attacks overnight
- Russia said its air defenses destroyed 144 Ukrainian drones overnight on April 26 as strikes hit several regions, with fires reported at the Yaroslavl oil refinery. - Ukraine’s General Staff said it struck the Yaroslavl refinery and targets in occupied territory, while Sevastopol’s Russian-installed governor said 71 drones were downed over Crimea. - The attacks fit Kyiv’s wider campaign against Russian oil facilities, which Reuters said cut Russia’s April output by 300,000-400,000 barrels daily. (reuters.com)
Russia said it shot down 144 Ukrainian drones overnight on April 26, as fires were reported at the Yaroslavl oil refinery and other targets in occupied Crimea. (kyivindependent.com) (reuters.com) Ukraine’s General Staff said Ukrainian forces hit the Yaroslavl refinery in northern Russia during the night of April 25-26. It said the same wave also struck Russian military trains in occupied Donetsk region and followed earlier hits on air-defense systems in Melitopol and Mariupol. (newsukraine.rbc.ua) The Kyiv Independent reported a fire at the refinery and said Russian regions and occupied Crimea were targeted in the same overnight operation. The outlet also reported that Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed head of Sevastopol, said air defenses downed 71 Ukrainian drones over the city. (kyivindependent.com) The refinery matters because fuel plants, storage depots and export terminals are part of Russia’s war economy. Reuters reported on April 18 that Ukrainian drones had also hit refineries in Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran, a fuel depot in Crimea and the Vysotsk Baltic port terminal. (reuters.com) The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign has been exploiting overstretched Russian air defenses to damage oil infrastructure and military assets in Russia and occupied Crimea. Its April 18 assessment cited fires at multiple refineries, a port in Leningrad region and a fuel tank near Sevastopol. (understandingwar.org) Russian military bloggers cited by the Institute for the Study of War complained that air defenses lacked enough surface-to-air missiles and that mobile fire groups were being expanded too late. Those complaints pointed to pressure on Russian defenses far from the front line as Ukraine sends drones deeper into Russian territory. (understandingwar.org) The economic effect is no longer theoretical. Reuters reported on April 21 that Russia cut oil production by about 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day in April after Ukrainian drone attacks on ports and refineries, in what sources said could be the sharpest monthly drop since the COVID pandemic. (reuters.com) That leaves the April 26 barrage as more than a one-night air raid. It was part of a campaign aimed at turning Russia’s refineries, depots and occupied-Crimea bases into regular targets. (reuters.com) (understandingwar.org)
