Ukraine's Defence Forces struck the Ilsky Oil Refinery in the Ilsky district of Russia's Krasnodar region overnight, sparking a fire on the territory of the facility, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday morning.
Refinery targeted deep inside Russia
The refinery lies roughly 400 kilometres from the eastern Ukrainian border and is the latest target in Russia hit by Kyiv's forces over the past several months. In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, the General Staff said the refinery has a total processing capacity of approximately 6.6 million tons of oil per year.
"The facility receives, stores, and processes hydrocarbon raw materials, and produces and ships petroleum products," the statement said. "The products of the enterprise are used, among other things, to supply the needs of the Russian armed forces."
Ukraine cites self-defence
Ukraine claims that facilities supporting either materially or financially the unlawful Russian military efforts against Kyiv are legitimate targets and amount to self-defence. The statement added: "The attack on such facilities is an exercise by Ukraine of its inalienable right to self-defense, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, and is aimed at reducing the military-economic potential of the Russian Federation."
This is not the first time Ukraine has taken this stance. In March last year, Ukrainian politician Olha Stefanishyna told the Kyiv Security Forum following reports that the US had asked her country to stop conducting drone strikes on Russian refineries: "We understand the calls of the US partners, but at the same time we are fighting with the capabilities, resources, and practices that we have." She then said energy facilities were legitimate targets from a military point of view.
Zelensky and Trump clash over diesel strikes
More recently, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky suggested Russia may expect more attacks on its oil and energy facilities this winter if Vladimir Putin's campaign against Ukraine doesn't end. His remark came after, during a visit to Ireland, Donald Trump said: "Mr Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia."
"Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel because he's causing a shortage of diesel," Trump said. "This isn't done by the Middle East; this is done by what's happening with Russia and Ukraine." Asked whether he had been directly pressed by Trump to cease strikes on Russian energy facilities while they were both at the UN last week, Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal: "Today we didn't talk about it, but by phone, yes… we were at this topic about the diesel. I said, look… our lives are more important than the price of energy."
