Ukraine has attacked approximately 160 refineries, pumping stations and other facilities of the Russian oil industry since the beginning of the year, Ukrainian security service chief Vasyl Malyuk said on Friday.
In September and October, 20 facilities were attacked, the head of the SBU intelligence service said in Kiev. “These include six oil refineries, two oil terminals, three oil depots and nine oil pumping stations,” Malyuk was quoted as saying by the news agency Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Malyuk’s estimates, the Russian market is short of about one-fifth of the oil products it needs. He said that the oil-processing capacities have been reduced by 37%.
Calculations by experts in the oil industry also arrive at approximately the same figures.
Malyuk said that Ukraine targets the Russian oil economy because it finances the lion’s share of the Russian defence budget.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for sanctions on a further 340 tankers of the so-called shadow fleet. The ships are used to export Russian oil while circumventing existing restrictions. Zelensky estimated that Russia could have a total of over 1,500 such ships under various flags.