Russia claims Ukraine attacked two refineries; Ukraine denies involvement

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Oct. 14 that Ukrainian drones had attacked two oil refineries in the country, a claim Ukraine strongly denies.

"According to the Ministry of Energy and the companies involved, two oil refineries — in the Saratov and Ryazan regions — were attacked by the Kyiv regime today," TASS reported Novak as saying, speaking on the sidelines of the Russian Energy week.

However, Ukrainian presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said Oct. 14 that the Ukrainian military had not targeted any oil refineries in Russia.

"The Russians spread a fake story about allegedly two attacked refineries. [We] attacked the data center and successfully attacked something else, but the refineries were not attacked," Lytvyn told reporters, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

Rosneft, which operates the 135,000 barrels/day Saratov refinery and the 342,000 barrels/day Ryazan refinery, was not immediately available for comment on the matter.

Saratov region Governor Roman Busargin said in a Telegram post Oct. 14 that only damage to residential buildings in the city of Balakovo had been reported as a result of a drone attack. Balakovo is more than 130 kilometers away from the Saratov refinery.

Ryazan region Governor Pavel Malkov said in a Telegram post that there have been no injuries or damage as a result of the drone attack.

Russian media outlet Astra, which typically reports first on all Russian refinery attacks, citing witness evidence, has not reported on any of the claimed strikes Oct. 14.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Oct. 12 that Kyiv had received no commitment from Russia to stop striking its energy infrastructure, contrary to a statement by the US administration that declared the two countries had reached an energy truce.

Zelenskyy said that, while Ukraine has been refraining from attacking Russian energy infrastructure in recent days, Russia has struck Ukrainian gas stations and other energy facilities.

"I believe this was Putin's response to President [Donald] Trump. And the signals from Russia were very clear: they know nothing about an energy truce. It is a pity, because they always find reasons not to stop this war," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy also said that Russia must stop striking Ukraine's energy system and killing Ukrainians if it wants Ukraine to halt its strikes against Russian oil refineries and oil exports.

Commenting on Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Kremlin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in video call with journalists Oct. 14 that the energy truce proposed by the US was not "fleshed out in detail", so one cannot say that Russia is not following it.