VIDEO Ukrainian drones hit two refineries and a military airfield in Krasnodar. Moscow claims it repelled the attack

Ukraine attacked the Ilsky and Slavyansk refineries in Russia’s Krasnodar region with drones early on Saturday morning, causing fires at the facilities, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had repelled a massive attack by unmanned aerial vehicles sent by Ukraine, according to AFP.

The attack was carried out by the SBU security service, the source said. Ukrainian drones also targeted the Kushchevsk military airfield in the same region overnight, the source added.

Several videos on social media showed the damage, the source said.

Reuters said it could not verify the videos, which showed massive flames rising into the dark sky.

Russian channel Astra aired footage it claims was taken after the attack on the Kushchevsk military airfield, courtesy of War Translated’s Dmitri.

“The SBU continues to effectively target military and infrastructure installations behind enemy lines,” the source said.

With Russia’s invasion now in its third year, Ukraine has stepped up its long-range drone attacks on Russian oil and energy facilities.

Officials in Kiev have said they consider the refineries legitimate targets, despite calls from foreign allies to halt the strikes to avoid Russian retaliation and spikes in global oil prices.

Local authorities in Russia said the refinery in the Krasnodar region had suspended operations after the drone attack.

Roman Siniagovskyi, head of Russia’s Slavyansk administrative district, said on Telegram that there were nine attacks on the park of storage tanks and the distillation column, a key piece of equipment in the refining process.

Russia claims to have intercepted dozens of drones

Russia intercepted 68 Ukrainian drones, on the night of Friday to Saturday, in the Krasnodar region (south) and in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced, reports AFP.

The ministry states that 66 of the drones were shot down over the Krasnodar region, and the other two over the Crimean Peninsula.

“They tried to attack oil refineries and infrastructures. According to the information from the scene, there are no injuries and no serious damage”, the governor of the Russian Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratiev, announced on Telegram.