KYIV, May 23 (Reuters) – The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had struck Russia’s Sheskharis oil terminal – one of the largest on the Black Sea – and the nearby Grushova oil depot.
The overnight attack sparked a fire at the Sheskharis terminal, Ukraine’s general staff said on the Telegram app. It also said that a tanker named Chrysalis was hit in the Black Sea.
Ukraine has sharply increased the number and scale of its strikes on Russian oil refining and transportation facilities in recent months, seeking to reduce Russia’s revenues from oil and gas exports, which the Kremlin uses to finance its war.
The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, Robert Brovdi, said on Saturday that in the first 23 days of May, Ukrainian drones had attacked 13 major Russian oil facilities.
Earlier this week, Brovdi said that six of Russia’s 10 largest oil refineries had stopped processing crude oil following Ukrainian attacks.
Reuters could not independently verify these claims.
CHEMICAL PLANT, VESSELS UNDER ATTACK
Zelenskiy said earlier on Saturday that Ukrainian drones had attacked a large Russian chemical plant, Metafrax Chemical, in the Perm region that supplied products to Russia’s military complex.
He said the plant had stopped operating after the attack.
In a separate message on Telegram, Brovdi said that on Saturday morning Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian military frigate and a hovercraft missile boat near the Novorossiysk naval base.
“The extent of the damage is unknown,” Brovdi added.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
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