Ukraine SBU Drones Ignite 800-Square-Meter Fire at Russian Oil Hub as Moscow Endures Mass Attack
Updated
Updated · Kyiv Independent · May 24
Ukraine SBU Drones Ignite 800-Square-Meter Fire at Russian Oil Hub as Moscow Endures Mass Attack
9 articles · Updated · Kyiv Independent · May 24
Ukraine’s SBU said its Alpha drone unit struck the Vtorovo oil pumping station in Russia’s Vladimir Oblast overnight on May 24, setting off a fire across 800 square meters.
The Transneft-run facility is a strategic fuel hub for Moscow Oblast, moving oil from central Russian refineries to domestic users and export terminals and supplying Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports.
The SBU said the operation was ordered by President Volodymyr Zelensky and framed it as a strike on strategic infrastructure tied to Russia’s war effort rather than civilian targets.
The attack came the same night Russia hit Kyiv and the surrounding region with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing four people and injuring nearly 100 in one of the war’s heaviest assaults on the capital.
Ukraine has increasingly used domestically produced long-range drones to hit Russian oil and military assets, and the SBU said more such operations are being prepared.
As sanctions block repairs, are Ukrainian drones pushing Russia's vital oil industry into a death spiral?
Has Ukraine’s drone revolution given it an insurmountable technological edge over Russia on the battlefield?
In this brutal infrastructure war, is either side actually capable of achieving a decisive victory?