Russian oil, gas sites in Crimea and Siberia hit by Ukrainian drones

Ukrainian forces hit four gas compressors in Russian-occupied Crimea and an oil refinery in the Siberian city of Tyumen on June 20, the military said, as Kyiv continues its campaign against Russia's energy sector to throttle  Moscow's war machine.

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces launched a wave of drones at Russian-occupied territories, hitting four gas compressors in Crimea, a bridge across the Henichesk Strait that connects Crimea to occupied Kherson Oblast, and 13 other military facilities in the occupied territories, Commander Robert Brovdi, known by the call sign "Madyar," wrote on Telegram.

The attack began the previous day, with Brovdi posting footage of Ukrainian drones hitting the Hlibivka underground gas storage facility in western Crimea in the evening on June 19.  Smoke was also seen rising from the Tavriiska Thermal Power Plant in the city of Simferopol.

The operation is part of Ukraine's "middle strike" campaign, in which Ukrainian forces use mid-range drones to hit Russian targets at operational depth behind the front, typically defined as between 25 and 200 kilometers (15 and 124 miles) from the front lines.

A wave of Ukrainian middle strikes have targeted occupied Crimea in recent weeks. Kyiv aims to turn the peninsula "into an island," Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on June 17, by striking Russian supply chains to isolate Crimea from Russia.

Around 2,000 kilometers from Crimea, Ukrainian drones also attacked the Tyumen oil refinery, which processes 7.5 million to 9 million metric tons of crude oil per year, Serhii Sternenko, an advisor to Ukraine's defense minister, wrote on social media.

"Local residents reported hearing at least two explosions. Earlier, a drone alert had been declared in the city, and the plant was urgently releasing pressure from its system," he wrote.

President Volodymyr Zelensky later praised the operation in his evening address on June 20.

"Our long-range sanctions have reached the Tyumen region in Russia — which is also an oil-refining hub — more than 2,000 kilometers from our national border. Effective," he said.

Russian authorities claimed that the attack on the refinery was repelled by air defense units. Regional Governor Aleksandr Moor said that emergency crews were working at the sites where wreckage from drone debris had fallen and that the refinery staff had been evacuated.

Moor also claimed that the facility was not damaged in the attack.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify these reports at the time of publication.  

The strike on the Tyumen refinery came just two days after Kyiv launched its biggest-ever drone attack on Moscow, hitting the capital's major oil refinery and igniting storage tanks and processing and refining units.

"This is an entirely justified response to Russian strikes on our cities and communities and another important result of our warriors' work against facilities that support Russia's war machine," President Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding that "it is time to end this war."

Russia's oil output reportedly  fell to a one-year low last month as Ukraine steps up its campaign on oil infrastructure.