Ukraine strikes Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery for the third time in a month. An overnight attack sets ablaze a Russian military base in Crimea, hosting Iskander missile systems. Russia maintains its territorial objectives beyond the remainder of unoccupied Donetsk region, ISW says.
Ukraine strikes Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery for third time in a month
Ukraine struck the Tuapse oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region for the third time in a month, the country’s Unmanned Systems Forces said in a post to social media on Tuesday.
“The operators of the 1st Separate Center and the 413th Raid Regiment in cooperation with the Special Operations Forces, Security Service, Main Intelligence Department of the Defense Ministry and other branches of Ukraine’s defense forces struck one of the most advanced plants of the Rosneft company,” the Unmanned Systems Forces said.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the attack, saying: “Ukraine’s defense forces carried out another strike on the Tuapse oil refinery in the Krasnodar region overnight on April 28 as part of [a campaign aimed at] decreasing the Russian aggressor’s military-economic potential.” The facility is involved in supplying the Russian army fighting in Ukraine, it added.
Ukraine carried out the first attack on the refinery on April 16, damaging key production equipment. A massive fire raged for several days, Ukraine Unmanned Systems Forces said.
The next strike took pace four days later.
“On April 20, Ukraine’s defense forces once again targeted an area of the port infrastructure where refined products for exports are stored. A fire broke out on the site once again,” the message reads.
Two previous strikes have destroyed 24 oil storage tanks and damaged four others. The damage from the latest attack is being assessed, the agency added.
Overnight attack sets ablaze Russian military base in Crimea hosting Iskander missile systems
An overnight attack set ablaze a Russian military base in occupied Crimea, hosting Iskander missile systems, the Telegram channel Krymskyi Veter (Crimean Wind) said on Tuesday, referring to satellite images.
The site in question is the former Russian missile base no.82717 located to the south of the village of Mizhhir’ya in the peninsula’s Bilohirskyi district.
The facility was also targeted in a drone strike on April 16 when Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces struck two storage sites hosting Iskander operational-tactical missile systems near Mizhhir’ya and Kurortne.
Russia launches Iskander missiles at targets across Ukraine from occupied Crimea.
Russia maintains its territorial objectives beyond the remainder of unoccupied Donetsk region, ISW says
A statement by the leader of the occupation administration of Donetsk region, claiming the need to create a “buffer zone” in adjacent Dnipro region contradicts the Kremlin’s attempts to portray the only unresolved issue in peace talks as Ukraine’s refusal to cede unoccupied Donetsk region to Russia, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on Monday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.
Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Head Denis Pushilin claimed to Kremlin newswire TASS on April 27 that Russia must establish a “buffer zone” in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to ensure the security of occupied Velyka Novosilka Raion, Donetsk Oblast, and to completely seize the remainder of unoccupied Zaporizhia Oblast.
ISW has long assessed that Russia maintains its territorial objectives beyond the remainder of unoccupied Donetsk Oblast, and Pushilin’s statement contradicts the Kremlin’s attempts to portray the only unresolved issue in peace negotiations as Ukraine’s refusal to cede unoccupied Donetsk Oblast to Russia.
A January assessment from ISW underscored that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that Russia’s objectives in Ukraine go beyond the territory that is currently under discussion in the latest peace plans to include all of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and Odesa oblasts.
Russia does not abandon attempts to advance in Ukraine and intends to seize not only entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but all of the country, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a post to social media on April 22.
Ukraine’s defense forces respond by systematically weakening Russia’s potential to wage war. They target and destroy Russia’s resources, supply lines and military capabilities, undermining the enemy’s plans, Syrskyi added.
