Ukraine carried out long-range drone attacks overnight against a key Black Sea oil terminal and a plant making components for explosives located deep inside Russia, a security official told Business Insider on Tuesday.
The twin attacks mark Ukraine’s latest long-range strikes and come as Kyiv’s forces continue to target facilities inside Russia that directly and indirectly help the country sustain its full-scale invasion.
Drones struck the Tamannaftogaz oil terminal in Russia’s Krasnodar region, hitting one of the largest ports in the Black Sea region, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. They were only authorized to speak on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
The attack on the port, the second in less than a month, caused a fire at the facility, the source said, adding that the earlier Ukrainian drone strikes on January 22 damaged several tanks and pipelines at Tamannaftogaz, causing an estimated $50 million in losses. The facility is recognized as an important piece of Russian oil logistics in the Black Sea.
The source said that the SBU, Ukraine’s main internal security agency, “systematically” targets Russia’s energy and export infrastructure, striking at a major revenue source fueling Moscow’s war efforts against its neighbor.
Since August, Ukraine has intensified its long-range drone attacks on Russia’s energy sector, striking oil refineries, terminals, tankers, and platforms across the country, and in the Black, Caspian, and even the Mediterranean seas.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly described the deep-strike campaign as “long-range sanctions” on Moscow. The attacks have led to a slight decline in Russian oil refining over the past year.
The deep strikes have also targeted other infrastructure associated with Russian military operations, including factories, weapons storage facilities, and air bases.
Overnight, for instance, Ukrainian drones struck the Metafrax Chemicals plant in the Perm region more than 1,600 kilometers (roughly 1,000 miles) inside Russia.
The sanctioned plant — one of the largest producers of methanol in Russia and Europe — is used to make chemical components for explosives and other military-related materials, the SBU source said. Several blasts were reported at the facility.
In a translated statement, the source said “the SBU continues to systematically work on enterprises that provide the Russian military-industrial complex with raw materials and components for the production of weapons.”
“The destruction of such objects reduces the pace of ammunition production, complicates the supply of resources for the army, and directly affects the reduction of the intensity of hostilities against Ukraine,” they added.
Neither Russia’s defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to a request for comment on the attacks. Moscow said its air defenses shot down 334 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over the past 24 hours.
The two attacks overnight on Monday were carried out by the SBU’s Alpha group, an elite unit considered to be among the best of Ukraine’s special forces.
The Alpha group is regularly behind long-range drone attacks against Russian targets. Forces within the unit also carry out ground operations, including in eastern Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that it had carried out an attack on the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, which is not far from the Tamannaftogaz terminal that the SBU targeted.
“The defense forces of Ukraine will continue to systematically carry out measures aimed at weakening the combat potential of the Russian aggressor,” the military said in a statement published to the Telegram messaging app.
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