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Ukraine Strikes Russian Oil Refinery During Parliamentary Elections
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In Short: Multiple videos posted to social media showed the Moscow Oil Refinery ablaze after several drone strikes. The Air Force reported that Russian troops launched 138 attack drones against Ukraine, of which 101 were intercepted.
Ukraine's General Staff reported a long-range strike on the Gazpromneft-Moscow Oil Refinery near Moscow, causing a large-scale fire and significant damage to the facility's refining units. The attack occurred overnight on September 20, during Russia's three-day State Duma elections, the country's first parliamentary vote since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The facility, located in the Kapotnya district, has a capacity of about 12 million metric tons of crude oil per year and supplies Russian troops' operations in the war against Ukraine. According to the General Staff, the AVT-6 primary refining unit, the integrated oil refining unit, and the isomerization unit were damaged by the strike.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack had a very significant impact, hitting not only the refinery but also a logistics facility in Voronezh Oblast. The General Staff stated that striking such facilities belonging to the Russian aggressor constitutes Ukraine's exercise of its inalienable right to self-defense.
Multiple videos posted to social media showed the Moscow Oil Refinery ablaze after several drone strikes. The Air Force reported that Russian troops launched 138 attack drones against Ukraine, of which 101 were intercepted.
The Kyiv Independent’s reporter Kateryna Denisova and War Crimes Investigations Unit journalist and political blogger Danylo Mokryk argue that recent corruption scandals, tensions around anti-corruption institutions, and a growing lack of political accountability are changing the balance of power inside Ukraine.
The facility's destruction is likely to impact Russia's military operations and its ability to supply fuel to its troops in Ukraine, as the refinery produces automotive gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, and other petroleum products.
What this adds
The attack on the Gazpromneft-Moscow Oil Refinery is a significant escalation in the conflict, targeting a key infrastructure asset that supports Russian military operations. This event highlights the ongoing and evolving nature of the war, with both sides employing increasingly sophisticated tactics.
Background
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A military staff or general staff is a group of officers, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military unit in their command and control role through planning, analysis, and information gathering, as well as by relaying, coordinating, and supervising the execution of their plans and orders, especially in case of multiple simultaneous and rapidly changing complex operations.
What's still developing
- She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018.