Ukraine said it shot down more than 33,000 Russian drones in March, setting what its defense ministry called a record monthly total for the period since Moscow launched its all-out invasion more than four years ago, and it tied the claim to interceptor systems used as part of its air-defense network. Ukrainian officials also said the country is accelerating drone-defense production and deep-strike capabilities as Russia continues using drones as a tool of pressure across the front.
In a Telegram post late Monday, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine is scaling up supplies of interceptor drones and that the military has introduced a new command within the air force intended to boost Ukraine’s capabilities. Ukrainian officials have also said interceptor drones are being sought by Middle East and Gulf countries as the drone conflict intersects with the broader regional security environment.
On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said Ukraine’s “deep-strike” capability has more than doubled since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. It said Ukrainian forces were then able to hit military targets about 630 kilometers (400 miles) away, and that they are now striking targets as far as roughly 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) behind enemy lines.
Ukraine said that expanded range has helped it hit Russian oil installations that provide revenue for Moscow’s war effort, and it also targeted plants that supply Russia’s armed forces. Separately, Ukraine said its domestically developed long-range attack drones struck a Russian oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks, prompting evacuations in the area and a Russian warning of possible “environmental consequences.”
The Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces said Tuesday that Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery at the Black Sea port of Tuapse for the third time this month in a coordinated operation involving multiple branches of Ukraine’s defense and security services. It said two earlier strikes this month destroyed 24 oil storage tanks and damaged four others, adding that independent verification of the claims was not possible. Video released by Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev showed a plume of black smoke rising from the refinery and black, steaming puddles on an adjacent street, while an emergency official reported to the governor that boiling oil products spilled onto the street from one of the oil tanks and damaged several cars.
Kondratyev said people living near the Tuapse refinery were being evacuated, but he did not provide details on how many people were evacuated or for how long. Speaking about the Tuapse strikes, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned they could “cause serious environmental consequences,” Interfax reported. Putin also said Kondratyev had reported that there were no serious threats in Tuapse and that people were “dealing with the challenges they face on the ground.”
The drone fighting continued alongside the strikes and air-defense claims. The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses overnight intercepted 186 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and parts of the Black and Azov seas. In Russia’s Belgorod region, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a drone attack killed three people and wounded three others.
Ukrainian authorities reported damage and casualties from Russian drone attacks as well. Ukraine said Russian drone attacks killed three civilians and wounded five others; the head of the Kharkiv region’s military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said two people were killed in the city of Chuhuiv; and he said a 40-year-old man died in Kryvyi Rih with five other men sustaining injuries. Ukrainian officials also said a rare daytime drone attack on Kyiv wounded two people, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, and that another Russian attack on Konotop in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region knocked out the city’s power and water supply.