(KYIV) – Ukrainian drones have struck a major oil refinery in Perm, Russia, dealing another blow to the country’s energy infrastructure that sustains both its economy and war effort.
The attack targeted the Lukoil refinery, a facility capable of processing more than 13 million tonnes of crude oil annually. Over half of its petroleum products are exported, making it a critical component of Russia’s energy industry.
The strike occurred overnight into the 7th September, according to a report by TVP World. A drone also struck a multi-storey residential building in the city, killing one person and wounding at least four others.
This marks the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks on the refinery. The facility was previously targeted on the 21st August as Ukraine continues to expand its long range drone campaign against Russian energy infrastructure.
The attack came shortly after the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and US officials called for Kyiv not to be targeted for three days. Despite this appeal, Russian forces launched nearly 100 strike drones at Ukraine in the same period.
In Zaporizhzhia, a shopping mall caught fire following a Russian attack. The head of the regional military administration confirmed no one was wounded. Local media identified the facility as City Mall, the largest shopping and entertainment centre in the city. It had already suspended operations until the end of September following an earlier strike on a nearby Epicenter supermarket on the 28th August.
The mayor of Sloviansk reported a Russian strike on a residential area with apartment buildings, stating that four people were wounded. In Odesa, two cars caught fire and windows were shattered in two residential buildings.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed it struck a production and cargo handling facility in Izmail, which it alleged was used to unload military supplies delivered by Western countries to the Ukrainian armed forces. The ministry also claimed to have struck a patrol boat in the Black Sea.
On the front line, Russian forces have shifted to a strategy of continuous daily attacks on Kramatorsk using drones and guided bombs since approximately mid August. The city has officially been designated part of the active combat zone as Russian troops continue to slowly advance towards it.
According to analysts, some Russian units have managed to approach within approximately seven kilometres of the Kramatorsk airfield. During the final month of summer, Russian strikes destroyed or damaged around 70 apartment buildings and approximately 100 private homes in the city. Residential areas were the primary targets of Russian strikes involving FAB 250 guided bombs.
Russian forces began their attempts to advance towards Kramatorsk in May from several directions, including from the southeast around Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka. In and around Kostiantynivka, Russian forces have managed to push Ukrainian troops back significantly. Most of the city is now occupied while Russian troops attempt to bypass it from the flanks.
Ukrainian units operating in the area are now primarily focused on countering Russian infiltration groups. Russian forces have limited room for manoeuvre there and are relying on tactics similar to those previously used in Bakhmut and Avdiivka, involving small groups infiltrating Ukrainian lines, building up their presence, and attempting to operate behind Ukrainian positions while bypassing established defensive positions.
In other developments, Ukrainian forces demonstrated effective coordination between unmanned systems. While carrying out a logistics mission, a Ukrainian ground based robotic complex detected a camouflaged Russian FPV drone waiting in ambush. The operator of the Russian standby drone missed the opportunity to attack and failed to react to the ground target. The ground robot operator immediately relayed the exact coordinates of the detected threat to UAV crews. Within minutes, a Ukrainian FPV was dispatched to the area where it destroyed the Russian standby drone with a precision strike, clearing the corridor and allowing the mission to continue.
In Kramatorsk, a Russian FPV drone carried out a strike on a civilian car travelling through a residential area of the city. The driver sustained serious injuries. Officers from the Ukrainian Donetsk Regional Police’s anti-drone battalion were patrolling the area and were first to arrive at the scene. The police officers pulled the man from the smoke filled vehicle, treated his life threatening injuries, and cleared a safe path to hand him over to paramedics.
Separately, a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter carried out a high precision air strike using a GBU-62 JDAM heavy guided bomb against a fortified position of the occupying forces in the village of Maryinka. Russian forces had set up aerial reconnaissance positions, electronic warfare systems, and firing emplacements directly on the upper floors of a civilian high rise building, counting on the difficulty of striking such a target. The released footage captured the bomb striking the upper part of the building, with the detonation causing a section held by the Russian forces to collapse.
A Ukrainian Hornet drone also engaged a Russian mobile fire group that was attempting to track the aircraft. While the Russian soldiers were focused on the sky, the Hornet executed a steep dive directly towards the Russian position, destroying the target.
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