Pro-Ukrainian partisans sabotaged communication tower ahead of oil refinery strike, Atesh group claims
on Google
A Russian servicemember defected and destroyed a communications tower deep behind Russian lines, allowing Ukrainian forces to strike one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, the Atesh group claimed on Sept. 5.
The pro-Ukrainian saboteur reportedly contacted the Atesh group, a partisan force operating behind Russian lines, and burned through wiring in a communications tower around the Russian city of Perm, roughly 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Ukraine, in August.
The Russian servicemember joined the Ukrainian resistance group due to his "disagreement with the country's leadership and the lawlessness he witnessed in the army," the Atesh group claimed on Telegram.
The loss of the tower reportedly disrupted data transmission in the area, leaving security personnel and Russian military units unable to maintain reliable coordination. Ukrainian drones then struck the nearby LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez on Aug. 21. Operations at the refinery were temporarily suspended following the strikes.
The Kyiv Independent cannot verify the claims made by Atesh.
Owned by Lukoil, one of Russia's largest oil producers, the Permnefteorgsintez refinery is among the country's largest. The facility processes more than 13 million metric tons of crude oil annually and produces gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and lubricating oils.
Ukrainian forces had previously struck the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez oil refinery on July 29 as part of Ukraine's broader missile and drone campaign against Russian energy and oil infrastructure far from Ukraine.
The Atesh partisan group regularly sabotages Russian military infrastructure in Ukraine's occupied territories and in Russia.
The group claimed credit for the sabotage of an electric substation powering a military plant in southern Russia on June 20. Members of Atesh allegedly sabotaged an electric locomotive used by the Russian military in Russia's Lipetsk Oblast on May 10.
The group is also active in Russian-occupied Crimea, where it has reported an increase both in people wishing to join and in those willing to pass on important information about Russia's military facilities and weapons.
