Ukraine carries out one of the largest drone attacks on Russia

Over the weekend, Ukraine launched one of its largest drone strikes yet on Russia, hitting a refinery and power plant deep in the country, according to videos posted on social media and geolocated by CNN.

The short videos show plumes of smoke rising from targets in Moscow and the neighboring Tver region.

The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the scale of the Ukrainian attack but downplayed its effectiveness. On Sunday it said 158 Ukrainian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were “destroyed and intercepted by deployed air defenses” overnight in 15 regions, including over the capital.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two drones were shot down near the Moscow oil refinery. No casualties were reported, but the second drone shot down damaged a technical building at the refinery and caused a fire, which the mayor said was local and did not affect the plant's operation.

Tver Region Governor Igor Rudenya said on social media that a fire caused by the drone attack on Konakovo district had been extinguished and gas and electricity supplies in the area were functioning normally.

The Ukrainian drone attacks were followed by several in the past week. Among other things, there was an attack last Thursday in which, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, oil reserves at a refinery in the Russian region of Rostov caught fire.

A social media video geolocalized by CNN showed a large cloud of black smoke rising from the Atlas oil depot in Rostov after the attack.

The latest wave of Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory began last month, when Kyiv troops launched a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region on August 6.

Only on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that “people are going through difficult trials, especially in the Kursk region,” as Ukrainian forces tried to “destabilize the situation along the border.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said recent drone strikes deep inside Russia were justified by Moscow's repeated attacks on his country.

“In the past week alone, Russia has fired over 160 missiles of various types, 780 guided aerial bombs and 400 unmanned combat aircraft of various types against our people,” Zelensky said in a post on X.

At least three people were injured in attacks in Kyiv and the eastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy on Monday, according to Ukrainian authorities. Earlier, 41 people were injured in a Russian attack on civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, local authorities said.

“Russia is once again terrorizing Kharkiv, attacking civilian infrastructure and the city itself,” Zelensky said on X, calling on allies to “give Ukraine everything it needs for its defense.”

“It is fully justified for Ukrainians to respond to Russian terror with all necessary means to stop it,” Zelensky said, reiterating his call for Western countries to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons that have prevented their use against targets inside Russia.

“This includes decisions to launch long-range strikes on Russian missile bases, destroy Russian military logistics, and launch joint efforts to shoot down missiles and drones – anything that will help us resist Russian evil,” Zelensky said.

Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure with missile and drone strikes since its invasion.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told CNN last week that he had presented the Biden administration with a list of targets in Russia that Kyiv plans to attack with U.S.-supplied long-range weapons, including the Army's Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).

ATACMS are fired from mobile launch vehicles, have a range of up to 300 kilometers and can deploy single high-explosive warheads or up to 900 submunitions, according to the Missile Defense Project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also called on allies to “abandon unfounded fears” and “lift restrictions on the country’s legitimate right to self-defense.”

“Ukraine is forced to fight with its hands tied,” Kuleba said on Monday.

“We explained what capabilities we need to protect citizens from the Russian terror that the Russians are imposing on us, so I hope we were heard,” Umerov said in an interview with CNN's Alex Marquardt.

However, a U.S. official said many of Ukraine's key targets in Russia are beyond the reach of ATACMS. The Russian military has moved its valuable military assets far from the front line, including the planes that drop glide bombs that have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian targets.

Umerov contradicted these assessments, arguing that Ukraine had provided the United States with a list of targets it would attack with ATACMS.

An analysis last month by the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) backed up the Ukrainians' claim that there are high-value targets in Russia within range of ATAMCS.

ISW said it had identified 233 Russian targets within ATACMS's range – “major military bases, communications stations, logistics centers, repair facilities, fuel depots, ammunition depots and permanent headquarters” – that were immobile facilities that Moscow could not move out of harm's way.

And the ISW said Ukraine only needs to attack some of these targets with ATACMS to significantly impact Russia's ability to fight on the front lines.

While Ukraine is demanding that the US lift ATACMS restrictions, it is developing new weapons with longer range.

Zelensky announced last month that his country has a new jet-powered drone capable of penetrating deep into Russia.

He said the Palianytsia “rocket drone” was being used in combat for the first time and was much faster and more powerful than the country's existing drone fleet, Ukrainian state media reported.

The Ukrainian president said he would not provide further details about Palianytsia, but praised the new weapon's “long-range capability” and suggested it could exceed the range of Ukraine's current drone fleet of up to 1,500 kilometers (932 miles).

CNN's Alex Marquardt, Isaac Yee, Darya Tarasova, Maria Kostenko, Chris Liakos and Anna Chernova contributed to this report.

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