Drones targeted Russia’s Saratov region overnight.
The area is home to the vital Saratov Oil Refinery, a facility capable of processing around 7 million tons of crude oil annually and supplying critical aviation fuel, diesel, and lubricants.
According to Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, the Saratov refinery plays an essential role in fueling Russia’s war machine.
Local governor Roman Busargin confirmed that non-residential sites in the Petrovsky district were damaged in the drone assault, but did not specify whether the refinery itself had been hit.
Russian media outlet RBC suggested the attack may have targeted the nearby Gazova electrical substation, but the full extent of the damage remains unclear.
According to United24 Media, the Saratov facility is one of several energy and logistics hubs in Russia increasingly under threat from long-range Ukrainian drone strikes. These attacks aim to disrupt the supply chains that keep Russia’s frontlines operational.
The March 13 strike comes just days after Ukrainian drones reportedly hit the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, another site with strategic military importance.
While Russia has remained tight-lipped about the exact impact of these strikes, the consistent targeting of its energy infrastructure reflects a calculated effort by Ukraine to degrade the Kremlin’s war-making capacity without engaging in large-scale direct assaults.
Moscow has not issued a formal statement about the Saratov incident, and no casualties have been reported so far.
