Ukraine struck an oil refinery in Russia's Perm region overnight, extending a drone campaign that has targeted Russian oil processing and export facilities on a nearly daily basis in recent weeks.

Ukrainian forces attacked Perm, which lies more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the Ukraine-Russia border, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday. "Last night, our deep strikes hit an oil refinery in Perm, more than 1,600 kilometers from the border, and the Marinovka military air base in the Volgograd region," Zelenskyy said in a post on X, which was accompanied by footage showing smoke billowing from an industrial complex. "We continue, through our long-range sanctions, to bring the consequences of the war back to where it came from," the Ukrainian president added.

Ukrainian media identified the refinery as Lukoil's Permnefteorgsintez crude processing facility, where a large fire broke out as a result of the hit. The plant is one of Russia's largest refineries by capacity, operated by the country's biggest private oil producer in a Urals industrial city that has served as an oil-processing hub since the Soviet era.

Perm region governor Dmitry Makhonin said on his Telegram channel that Russian forces shot down 16 drones over the Perm region. One industrial facility was damaged, with no injuries reported there, but the Russian official did not elaborate on which facility was struck.

The attack on Lukoil's Perm refinery came hours after Ukraine hit a refinery ultimately owned by Rosneft in Russia's Bashkortostan region earlier this week in a drone attack that sparked a fire.

For several months, Ukraine has targeted Russian refineries in near-daily drone attacks intended to push President Vladimir Putin into peace negotiations while crippling Russia's fuel supply to the front line and domestic gas stations. Amid peak demand season, Russia has been suffering from gasoline and diesel shortages for more than three months, as Ukraine's drone campaign forced many large processing sites offline in the spring and summer. The stakes extend beyond fuel logistics: oil and petroleum products anchor Russia's export earnings, and revenues from the sector have accounted for around 30 percent of federal budget income in recent years, according to Russian Finance Ministry data. Moscow has leaned on temporary bans on gasoline exports to shield domestic supply during earlier squeezes, while Ukrainian drones have repeatedly returned to strike some of the same facilities, complicating repair efforts.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com