Ukrainian troops have dealt another major blow to President Vladimir Putin, attacking the Kremlin’s energy sites with hundreds of drones overnight and into Friday morning.
The large-scale attack is the latest in a months-long campaign of deep strike missions aimed at hitting oil and gas facilities and crippling Putin’s badly-needed warchest. Sanctions-dodging oil global oil exports have been the backbone of the Kremlin’s funding of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as elsewhere Russia ’s economy has tanked.
The massive drone onslaught hit major petrochemical and oil refining facilities in the Tatarstan and Samara region – sparking major fires and explosions and exposing defence systems.
Among the facilities damaged were the Nizhnekamskneftekhim complex and Taneco refinery, although Russia claimed to have downed 231 drones overnight. The attacks also disrupted Russia Day celebrations and temporarily shut regional airspace in another major embarrassment for beleaguered Putin. The long-range assaults are the latest in a series of humiliating blows to the Kremlin leader, still reeling over recent attacks on his home town of St Petersburg.
Togliatti residents heard loud explosions for at least 40 minutes. Drones were shot down all over Russia including Belgorod, the Moscow region, and occupied Crimea. And the long range attacks by Ukraine are biting at Putin’s war economy. Referencing Ukraine’s drone attack teams President Volodymyr Zelensky said:
“The Unmanned Systems Forces are one of Ukraine’s greatest achievements – proof of Ukrainian leadership in technology and in saving lives through technology. According to the president, the number of Russian targets struck by Ukraine’s USF has reached hundreds of thousands per year. Over the past year alone, from June to June, Ukrainian drone forces hit more than 356,000 Russian targets. Russian troops in Crimea are reporting major gasolene shortages as a result of these long-range strikes which have gone on for months.
And there are growing fears in Russia that Ukraine is about to storm Crimea and try to take it back, having almost severed supply links to the peninsula. Ukraine’s drone commanders are reporting that they out-numbering their Russian counterparts at an increasing rate at a 1.5 to one ratio – killing and wounding more Russian soldiers as recruiting in Moscow is ailing. Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the Ukrainian first-person view (FPV) drones outnumber Russian FPV drones on the battlefield by a ratio of 1.5 to one and that this advantage is growing.
He said Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces struck almost 180,000 verified targets in May 2026 alone — up 27 percent from April 2026. Sources suggest Russia only has 21 per cent of its recruitment needs for drone units. Russia is said to have lost well 1.3 million troops to death or injury since the February 2022 full-scale invasion, which followed the annexation of Crimea in 2014. And there are increasing reports that Putin is taking extra measures for his own protection as he fears being toppled in a palace coup by Moscow’s elite.
