Since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, Ukraine has methodically built a campaign to strike deep inside Russia using long-range drones, hitting oil refineries and fuel depots with increasing precision. What started as sporadic attacks has evolved into a sustained strategy aimed at crippling Russia’s ability to produce the diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline that power its military operations.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have publicly stated that these strikes are legitimate military targets under international law because the facilities directly support Russia’s war effort. The campaign illustrates how a smaller state can reach into an adversary’s energy infrastructure using relatively modest technology, challenging traditional assumptions about the reach of air power.
Tracing the Strikes on Russia’s Energy Backbone
The sequence of attacks reads like a map of Russia’s refining capacity. In May 2023, a drone struck the Ilsky Refinery in Krasnodar Krai, a facility capable of processing 6.6 million tons of crude oil per year. The following month, in June 2023, the Novoshakhtinsk Refinery in Rostov Oblast was hit; that plant has an annual capacity of 7.5 million tons.
September 2023 brought an attack on the Ryazan Refinery, which processes 17 million tons per year. And in January 2024, the Omsk Refinery – one of Russia’s largest, with a capacity of 21 million tons per year – was targeted.
Satellite imagery has confirmed damage at several of these sites, even as Russian authorities claim to have intercepted many incoming drones. The cumulative effect has forced Moscow to deploy additional air defense systems around energy infrastructure, stretching its overstretched defensive network and diverting resources from other priorities.
The Drones and the Strategic Shift
Ukraine has fielded a mix of platforms for these long-range missions. Some are modified Soviet-era designs, while others are new Ukrainian models such as the UJ-22 Airborne, which has a range of up to 800 kilometers, and the AQ-400 Scythe, with a range of up to 750 kilometers. These systems allow Ukrainian forces to strike targets far from the front lines, turning what was once a tactical nuisance into a strategic campaign to degrade Russia’s refining capacity. The campaign matters because it demonstrates how improvised air power can strain traditional defenses in a modern conflict.
By forcing Russia to protect dozens of refineries and depots across its vast territory, Ukraine makes the defensive challenge far more costly and complex.
Historical Context of a Fractured Relationship
Ukraine emerged from the Soviet Union as an independent state in 1991 after decades as a constituent republic under Moscow’s rule. The territory’s history is marked by centuries of contestation by external powers following the collapse of Kievan Rus’. In the 17th century, the Cossack Hetmanate rose in central Ukraine before eventually being absorbed into the Russian Empire.
More recently, a mass uprising known as Euromaidan in 2014 brought down the Ukrainian government, and Russia responded by seizing Crimea. Those events deepened the rupture between Kyiv and Moscow, setting the stage for the full-scale invasion years later.
The current drone campaign against Russian refineries is the latest chapter in a long pattern of asymmetrical response, showing how a smaller state can project power deep into its larger neighbor’s industrial heartland far from the battlefield.
