(LONDON) – Ukraine has intensified its long range drone campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, striking two major oil refineries in overnight attacks as fuel shortages worsen across the Russian federation.
The Kirishi oil refinery, Russia’s second largest, located outside Saint Petersburg in Leningrad Oblast, was hit again following previous strikes on 5th May and 25th March 2026. A second attack targeted the Yaroslavl refinery, Russia’s fifth largest, where preliminary reports indicate the AVT3 primary crude distillation unit was damaged. That unit processes approximately 40 percent of the plant’s total capacity. Satellite imagery from the Kstovo refinery, struck five or six days prior, showed extensive damage with cranes and diggers already deployed in repair efforts.
Reuters reports that Russian gasoline output has fallen to 70 percent of domestic demand. Current production averages approximately 80,000 tonnes daily against domestic consumption of 115,000 tonnes. Russia expects roughly 270,000 tonnes of seaborne petroleum imports from Asia during August, covering only about eight days of the daily shortfall of 35,000 tonnes. Fuel queues have been reported in Yekaterinburg and other major Russian cities, with motorists spending hours waiting for rationed supplies of 30 litres.
In a related development, the Kremlin has stated that peace negotiations with Ukraine are on a deep pause. The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said that while sanctions and long range strikes are having a severe cumulative impact, Russia still maintains significant resources and trade ties with major economies, particularly China. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for Ukraine to launch 1,000 drones daily at Russian territory, up from the current rate of 300 to 400.
Additional Ukrainian strikes hit the Ozon and DNS logistics hubs in Rostov on Don, Rostov Oblast, where a warehouse supplying military equipment to Russian forces was destroyed. The Wildberries logistics hub in Samara, struck on 2nd August, remained out of operation, with footage showing collapsed and melted steel beams throughout the facility.
A Ukrainian drone also damaged a Tu-95 strategic bomber at the Engels air base in Saratov Oblast. Russia reportedly has 37 combat ready Tu-95 aircraft remaining, down from approximately 60 at the start of the full scale invasion. A separate drone attack caused multiple fires at an air base in Krasnodar.
In the temporarily occupied territories, Ukraine’s Magyar’s Birds unit reported striking 21 energy nodes and the Luhansk thermal power plant over three days. Open source analyst Clement Molin has tracked 220 electrical substations destroyed by Ukrainian drones this year, alongside extensive damage to gas and oil infrastructure, air defence systems and railway logistics. Russia continues to lose between 20 and 30 long haul vehicles and fuel tankers daily in occupied areas.
Ukraine has also struck the Russian cargo vessel Lighter Bordeaux outside the port of Tuapse on 26th August. Ankara has summoned Ukraine’s ambassador over attacks on ships in the Black Sea. Meanwhile, Turkey is reportedly proceeding with the sale of M270 launchers and ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, pending United States congressional approval.
More than 113,000 Russian men have crossed into Georgia within a week, according to Politico, amid growing expectations of a new mobilisation announcement. During the previous mobilisation in September 2022, more than one million Russian men fled the country.
In Kyiv, the capital experienced 12 air raid alerts in a single day as Russia launched waves of jet powered drones. Public transport was severely disrupted, metro services were halted on one side of the river, and large supermarkets closed. At least 37 civilians died after a Russian drone strike caused secondary explosions at an ammunition depot near the village of Myla, west of Kyiv. President Zelenskyy confirmed that more than 300 State Emergency Service personnel were deployed to the site.
Russia also destroyed a Nova Poshta facility and a book warehouse, burning 60,000 books, in what observers describe as an intensifying campaign against Ukrainian language and culture. A separate strike destroyed the Khortytsia vodka distillery in Zaporizhzhia.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin made remarks comparing Russia’s war to the food chain, stating that children should learn how orcas hunt polar bears to understand the “special military operation.” Former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent ten years in Russian prison, said Putin “has gone mad” and is “a completely different person than when he came to power.”
Sweden has transferred ten coast guard vessels to Ukraine.
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