Since the start of 2026 Ukraine has conducted a highly successful campaign of strikes on Russian oil refining infrastructure, knocking offline about 700,000 barrels per day of Russian refining capacity, across 16 refineries. That is nearly double the disruption recorded over the same period last year.
What started as experimental, isolated attacks in the first year of war has transformed into thousands of strikes on Russian logistics, ammunition depots and defense industry assets four years later. During this time, Ukraine has boosted its drone production while introducing long-range systems capable of reaching virtually all of European Russia. I have visited the top-secret facilities where such drones were being produced.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense stated that May 2026 alone saw 40 confirmed strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. That resulted in roughly 25% of Russia’s oil refining capacity going fully or partially offline. According to reports, Russian oil production fell to around 10% below official targets. In financial terms, Russia by some estimates has suffered losses of $5-8 billion, which, compared to the Federal budget of $420 billion, according to IMF projections, is not an immeasurable sum. But when compared to Russia’s total defense budget – effectively the money it needs to fund the war on Ukraine – it amounts to a loss of around 3-6%.
Other Topics of Interest
