Ukraine and Russia traded fire overnight with 4 people hurt in strikes targeting two major oil refineries in Russia while Russian attacks in the other direction killed 6 and injured dozens in Ukraine. File photo by Russian Emergencies Ministry/EPA-EFE
Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Ukraine said Thursday that it hit two oil refineries deep inside Russian territory in strikes overnight as well as tankers in Russia's so-called shadow fleet and Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea. Six people were killed and 28 injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine's Kharkiv, Sumy and Odessa regions.
Posting on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine Defense Forces carried out long-range drone attacks on the Bashneft-Novoil refinery 950 miles away in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan and the Slavneft-YANOS refinery, one of Russia's largest, in Yaroslavl 270 miles northeast of Moscow.
Sharing footage of columns of black smoke rising into the sky amid the sound of explosions that the BBC said it had verified was of Yaroslavl, Zelensky said the actions were part of Ukraine's strategy of targeting Russia's ability to generate revenue from hydrocarbons, which in turn were used to fund the war.
"Today, our long-range sanctions once again worked to limit Russia's oil revenues, which it uses to finance the war and the killing of Ukrainians. Our responses to Russian aggression in the Black Sea were also successful. In particular, two military patrol boats and shadow fleet vessels were struck," wrote Zelensky.
