A Ukrainian drone struck a major oil processing plant in Russia's Bashkiria region on Thursday from some 1,500 km (932 miles) away, a Kyiv intelligence source said, its longest-range such attack since the start of the war.
Ukraine also hit two oil depots in southern Russia, as Kyiv tries to undermine Russian forces pressing along front lines on its territory by attacking energy facilities that are crucial to funding the economy and the war.
Russia's emergency service said a drone attack damaged a pumping station building at Gazprom's Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex in Bashkiria, Russia's largest such plant, state RIA news agency reported.
The governor of the region said the plant was functioning as usual despite the attack. Reuters could not establish where the drone was launched and what kind of device it was. The nearest government-held part of Ukraine is about 1,400 km away.
The Kyiv source said the drone flew 1,500 km, calling it a record, and hit a catalytic cracking unit in an attack that showed "Russian refineries and oil depots serving the military complex cannot feel safe even in the deep rear".
Moscow says such attacks amount to terrorism and has launched what it says are revenge strikes that have pounded Ukraine's energy infrastructure since mid-March, raising fears about the resilience of the Ukrainian power system.
Kyiv has stepped up its drone attacks on oil processing facilities in Russia since the start of the year, disrupting 15% of Russia's oil refining capacity according to an estimate by a NATO official at the beginning of April.
Reuters calculations on April 15 showed that Russia had been able to repair some key oil refineries hit by drones, reducing capacity idled by the attacks to about 10% from almost 14% at the end of March.
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