Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Omsk oil refinery – the country’s largest, located deep in Siberia – in what would be one of Ukraine’s longest-range attacks of the war, Kyiv’s military said. Local Russian authorities confirmed the strike, which came on the eve of a crucial Nato summit. The strike caused a fire at the Omsk refinery, about 2,700km from Ukrainian-held territory and close to Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said. The Omsk region’s governor, Vitaly Khotsenko, said Ukraine had attacked the refinery and that Russian air defences had destroyed most of the drones involved in the strike. There were no casualties and emergency services were working at the scene, he said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as an “important achievement” for Ukraine’s armed forces, adding in his nightly video address: “Siberia, too, is now within reach of Ukrainian precision strikes.” The Ukrainian defence technology company Fire Point said its upgraded FP-1 drones carried out the attack and described it as a record for strike drones “not only in Ukraine, but worldwide. Prior to this, the Omsk oil refinery had remained out of reach for Ukrainian drones.” Ukraine’s military also hit Russia’s Ust-Luga and Vysotsk ports, which handle oil exports on the Baltic Sea, as well as targets in the Kaluga and Yaroslavl regions, local governors said.
