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As Russian missiles streaked through the skies above Ukraine before dawn on Saturday, once again targeting the nation\u2019s already battered energy grid in a broad and complex bombardment, Ukrainian drones were flying in the other direction, taking aim at vital oil and gas refineries and other targets inside Russia.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian Air Force said its air defense teams had intercepted 21 of the 34 Russian cruise and ballistic missiles fired from land, air and sea-based systems, but the attack caused extensive damage to four thermal power plants and other critical parts of the power grid in three regions.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defense said it had shot down 66 Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar region, which is just across the Kerch Strait in southern Russia, east of the occupied Crimean Peninsula.<\/p>\n
Veniamin Kondratyev, the head of the regional government, said the Ukrainians drones had targeted two oil refineries, a bitumen plant, and a military airfield in Kuban.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the S.B.U., said the Ukrainian military operation had targeted the Kushchevsk airfield and the Ilsky and Slavyansk oil refineries. The airfield housed \u201cdozens of military aircraft, radars and electronic warfare devices,\u201d the agency said in a statement, adding, \u201cThe S.B.U. continues to effectively target military and infrastructural facilities behind enemy lines, reducing Russia\u2019s potential for waging war.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kremlin tightly controls information about Ukrainian attacks, often making it difficult to assess their impact, and it was unclear how much damage the drone strikes caused.<\/p>\n
Russia has also outlawed criticism of its war effort, aggressively stifling<\/a> any voice deemed critical of the military and arresting hundreds of people as part of a widespread crackdown on dissent. On Friday, the Russian authorities arrested a journalist from the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Sergei Mingazov, for reposting information on social media at the outset of the war about Russian atrocities, according to Russian officials and his lawyer, Konstantin Bubon.<\/p>\n Although the Russian authorities routinely deny or play down the impact of Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, the attacks on oil and gas facilities have been hard to hide. Britain\u2019s military intelligence agency estimated last month that such strikes had disrupted<\/a> at least 10 percent of Russia\u2019s oil refinery capacity. On March 1, the Kremlin imposed a six-month ban on gasoline exports in what appeared to be an effort to avoid shortages and prevent spikes in domestic prices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n