Ukrainian Drones Set Russian Refineries Ablaze: Over 20 Regions in Russia Are Already Rationing Fuel

Ukraine is carrying the war deep into Russian territory, and exactly where it hurts most - into the oil industry. Ukrainian drones struck several Russian refineries overnight, and social media is filling up with footage of high flames and thick smoke over the storage tanks.

Among those hit is the refinery in Slavyansk in the Krasnodar region, a key point for supplying fuel to occupied Crimea. The refinery in Yaroslavl, around 250 kilometres northeast of Moscow, also came under attack, as the local governor confirmed. The Russian authorities, as usual, blame the damage on „falling debris" - a phrasing repeated so often that it no longer convinces anyone.

The strikes come amid a growing fuel crisis inside Russia itself. More than 20 regions have already introduced sales restrictions, and citizens report hours-long queues at the pumps. It is not an isolated strike, but part of a systematic campaign: on 19 June the Moscow refinery covering 40 percent of that market was shut down, on 25 June two refineries in Bashkortostan were hit, and by the end of the month one of the country's four largest also went offline.

Kyiv is officially silent about the attacks, as usual. But the message is clear: the war has long not been only at the front - it is also in the queue at the petrol station, in the price of fuel, in the everyday life of an ordinary person far from the line of fire. That is a lesson the Balkans learned long ago - war torments most exactly those who never wanted it.