It is very likely that when Russia decided to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022, they thought it was going to be a simple operation that would not last over time. big mistake The country of Ukraine continues to struggle against being considered the second military power in the world. In recent months, moreover, Kiev has found a way to attack one of the main strategic pillars of Russian GDP: refineries.
And he’s doing it with precision attack lessons. A refinery can occupy hundreds of hectares with thousands of industrial equipment. However, it does not need to be completely destroyed to inhibit its activity. Ukraine is exploiting that vulnerability, making it as difficult for Moscow to repair the damage as it is to prevent further attacks.
A coordinated campaign. The Washington Post reports that attacks on Russian refineries are part of a coordinated Ukrainian campaign to put Russian energy infrastructure out of service, just as Putin is doing with Ukrainian facilities. What kyiv is doing is targeting critical components at the heart of refineries, rather than trying to destroy entire sites. This is thanks to great advances in drone development and the military intelligence that allies are helping them with.
In addition to refineries, Ukraine has also damaged other oil-related industrial facilities, such as fuel storage tanks, pumping infrastructure and pipelines across the country, so transportation is also being compromised. By the end of August 2026, half of Russia’s total refining capacity will be out of service, explains El Confidential.
For the heart of the refinery. The results of this campaign were disastrous according to the same media. The attacks targeted so-called ELOU-AVT units, by their Russian acronym, essential in the early stages of oil processing. These are electric desalinators responsible for removing water and salt from the crude oil before it enters the distillation unit that continues the refining process. If one of these units is disabled, a significant portion of the refinery may lose its processing capacity, even if other facilities are not directly affected.
“Our target is the most important part of the refinery. We don’t need to attack the whole plant. We know where to hit so that it stops and doesn’t recover,” declared a Ukrainian drone battalion commander, who asked to be identified by his military callsign Tango, in an interview with The Washington Post.
Parts are difficult to repair. According to an analysis by the American Press, of the 54 impacts studied, more than half appear to have damaged these critical parts of the facility. According to experts in media consultation, it is not so much that the objectives achieved are irreparable, but rather that the frequency of attacks prevents them from having the necessary time to repair.
In addition, they add that the repair of these parts is increasingly difficult due to sanctions imposed on Russia, which makes access to new components quite complicated. And from the day after the 2022 attack, the European Union banned exports of vacuum atmospheric distillation and secondary processing equipment to Russia, among other measures in a wider package of sanctions.
Work on private critical infrastructure. Vladimir Putin recently admitted that these Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries have managed to damage his economy. According to the executive’s calculations, they could lose about 1% of their GDP due to these attacks. To face future attacks, the Russian president advised companies to acquire their own air defense systems and announced a decree that allows the state to take care of private critical infrastructure, of course, refineries, if their owners cannot protect them.
Geography, against. Putin has also promised to improve the country’s air defense system. However, the historical advantage that Russia has always had in its favor, such as its vast territorial expansion, is now becoming a hindrance to its defense. Its refineries are distributed in regions far apart from each other, and their protection requires the installation of detection, interception and defense systems at many points. As a result, the Washington Post says the Air Force is scattered across the country, how to solve a logistical problem when threats can reach targets far from the front.
Picture | Frederick Shaw
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