Today, there are a lot of important updates from the Russian Federation.

Russian oil refineries are going up in flames as Ukraine unleashes relentless waves of drone strikes deep into enemy territory. With 10% of Russia’s refining capacity already offline and more targets inside, these attacks are beginning to impact the Russian economy.

The most significant Ukrainian strike took place in Crimea, where Ukrainians launched over 100 drones against Russian military airfields and air defense systems.

To wear out Russian air defenses, Ukrainians deployed decoy drones, overloading Russian crews with targets and allowing the real drones to slip through. Then, the Ukrainians destroyed a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system and a Buk-M1 radar, creating a gap wide enough for the Ukrainians to devastate Russian military airfields. Ukrainians also deployed naval drones equipped with anti-air missiles and FPV drones to strike targets along the coast and deny Russian aviation the ability to fly over the Black Sea to intercept incoming strikes.

Russians used helicopters and jets to help track and take down Ukrainian drones. With these airfields heavily bombed and Russians unable to use their aviation, Russian air defense was weakened—especially over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, where Russian helicopters are most often deployed.

Ukraine hammers key Russian refineries and supply hubs

This enabled the Ukrainians to launch additional drone strikes toward Russian oil refineries located in Krasnodar Krai and the southern Rostov Oblast, flying over the Crimean Peninsula and surrounding seas with close to 80 long-range strike drones.

In Tuapse, civilian reports mentioned hearing over 40 explosions near the seaport and oil refinery in the city. Over the past weeks, Ukrainians have launched several more devastating drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and supporting infrastructure. Notably, Ukrainians hit a major oil refinery and depot in Krasnodar Krai, right under the nose of the main base of the Russian 90th Air Defense Brigade, even destroying several air defense systems during this strike.

In Volgograd Oblast, Ukrainians struck the main oil refinery—which refines over 14 million tons of oil per year—several times over the course of many days, along with the Astrakhan gas processing plant in the area. Ukrainians launched strikes far beyond Volgograd Oblast, targeting the Saratov oil refinery, which processes over seven million tons of oil annually. After Saratov, the Ukrainians struck the Ilsky oil refinery to the south, with over six million tons of oil annually, and the Syzran oil refinery near Samara, with almost nine million tons of oil. Ukrainians also targeted Tula’s oil refinery and the massive oil storage facilities there.

Lastly, Ukrainians conducted a final strike on the Ryazan oil refinery—one of the largest in Russia, processing over 17 million tons of oil annually—for the third time this year, causing the plant to halt its operations once again.

Russia’s oil industry on the brink

The targeted Russian oil refineries produce a combined 53 million tons of oil annually, dealing a significant blow to the Russian economy, which is largely dependent on oil and gas exports. On top of that, Ukrainians also targeted Russian pumping stations, striking two pumps in Chortkovo, Rostov Oblast, and disabling the entire facility at Krasnodar. These facilities are a critical component of the Russian oil refining infrastructure, pumping the necessary oil to refineries that process it. Taking out the oil pumping stations will starve the still-operational refineries of oil to refine while also heavily disrupting Russian exports.

Overall, since the start of Ukraine’s massive drone strike campaign targeting Russian oil refinery capabilities and infrastructure, Ukraine has taken over 10% of Russia’s oil industry offline. Ukrainians are effectively outpacing Russia’s ability to repair the damage.

Recent strikes on refineries in Volgograd and Krasnodar Oblast alone have reduced Russian oil production by over 5%. Ukraine’s success relies on mass drone production, with swarms of drones repeatedly bypassing Russian air defenses to hit major refineries like Ryazan multiple times. If Ukrainian strikes continue at this pace, Ukraine could disable up to 20% of Russia’s oil industry in the coming months, dealing a severe blow to the Russian economy.

In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.