Ukraine strikes Russian oil rigs in Caspian Sea after Moscow’s intense drone bombardment

Ukraine struck three Russian oil rigs operating in the Caspian Sea on Sunday following Moscow’s large-scale bombardment over the weekend that left thousands without heat or power in Kyiv.

Footage released by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) revealed the moment Kyiv launched three separate explosive drones overnight targeting drilling platforms belonging to Lukoil, one of Russia’s largest oil producers.

The drones are seen flying over the oil rigs — named the V. Filanovsky, Yuri Korchagin and Valery Graifer — before slamming into them and detonating.

“Direct hits have been recorded. The extent of the damage is being assessed,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement.

Kyiv claimed the offshore plants were directly aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Kyiv has previously said makes them a viable target.

Ukraine has ramped up its attacks on Moscow’s oil and gas plants as a way to cripple Russia’s war machine after targeting oil rigs in the Caspian Sea last month.

Along with the drone strikes on the oil rigs, Ukraine also targeted the Russian city of Voronezh on Sunday, killing one woman and injuring three others, according to regional Gov. Alexander Gusev.

At least 17 drones were shot down over the city, which lies some 155 miles from the Ukraine border.

The Ukrainian attack comes just two days after Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles into Ukraine, killing at least four people in the capital, officials said.

The assault also saw Russia make use of its powerful new hypersonic Oreshnik missile for the second such time during the nearly four-year war, which was seen as a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The bombardment caused mass blackouts across the country, with DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, reporting that at least 30,000 people in Kyiv were still without power on Sunday.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the assault left nearly 6,000 apartment buildings without heat as temperatures plummeted to about 17 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the targets Russia hit over the weekend served “no military purpose whatsoever,” claiming the attacks were meant to inflict pain on the people of Ukraine.

“They deliberately waited for freezing weather to make things worse for our people. This is deliberate, cynical Russian terror specifically against civilians,” Zelensky wrote on X.

With Post wires