Bloomberg: Ukrainian Drone Strikes Cut Russian Oil Processing to 7-Year Low

Bloomberg confirmed Ukrainian robot aircraft are systematically demolishing Russian energy infrastructure one day after Trump – confusing Ukraine with Iran – declared Ukraine “militarily defeated.” Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied This handout satellite image courtesy of 2026 Vantor taken and made available on April 16, 2026, shows smoke rising from the Tuapse oil refinery of in Tuapse, south-western Russia. (Photo by Handout / Satellite image ?2026 Vantor / AFP) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google Effective Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian Federation energy infrastructure have reduced Russia’s oil processing volumes to the lowest level since 2009, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Thursday. Oil and derivatives processing volumes across Russia, the world’s second-biggest oil exporter, have fallen to 4.69 barrels today, a rate 12 percent less than in 2025, and 18 percent less than in 2021, prior to the Kremlin’s second invasion of Ukraine. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . The Bloomberg report said that Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) long-range drones attacked Russian oil infrastructure 21 times in April alone, and said those strikes were the main cause of the Russian production slowdown. The attack pace was at a four-month high, the report said. The Bloomberg report confirming damaging and effective Ukrainian strikes against Russia’s most critical industrial sector was published one day after US President Donald Trump in White House comments confusedly declared Ukraine defeated by Russia – apparently meaning Iran, although he said Ukraine. Trump went on to insist Ukraine has suffered massive naval losses at Russian hands. Per Kyiv Post records incorporating open source data on Ukrainian attacks directed at Russian oil production, transport, processing capacity, as well as against air defenses protecting that infrastructure, during April 2026 Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) carried out at least 90 air strikes against those or similar targets. Other Topics of Interest Russia Fired Record Number of Drones at Ukraine in April: AFP Analysis Russia launched 6,583 long-range drones during the month, according to a compilation of daily reports published by Ukraine’s air force. Ukraine’s bombardment campaign is accelerating and Russian air defenses are struggling to stop it, particularly in engagements in air space over southwest Russia and the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region Crimea, that data showed. Among the energy infrastructure facilities hit since April 1 have been oil refineries in Russia’s Krasnodar, Ufa, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod, Leningrad/St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Samara, Astrakhan, Yaroslavl, Perm, Orenburg and Voronezh oblasts, as well as the Republic of Bashkorstan and facilities in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces. Probably hardest-hit by that bombardment campaign, recently, has been the Tuapse refinery in Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, which has been attacked and set on fire by Ukrainian drones launched on March 31, and on April 1, 16, 20, 28 and 30. Damage and fires burning almost continuously since mid-April and still in progress midday Friday have shut down the facility with a capacity of about 240,000 barrels/day. The Tuapse facility’s main function is refining Russian crude into diesel fuel, fuel oil, naphtha, kerosene and gasoline, among other products, for export overseas, particularly Turkey and Asia. The longest-ranged Ukrainian drone attack to date hit an oil refinery in the Russian city Ukhta, near the Arctic Circle some 1,800-1,900 kilometers (about 1,150 miles). from probable launch sites, on Feb. 12, followed by an April 29 attack on an oil refinery in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains, about 1,700-1,800 kilometers (about 1,060-1,120 miles) away. The third-longest ranged Ukrainian drone strikes to date have hit the Perm Linear Production and Dispatch Station overnight April 28-29 and overnight April 30-May 1, some 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) from probable launch sites. According to Kyiv Post counts, since kicking off a long-term campaign to bombard Russian energy infrastructure in late July 2025, USF forces have hit 580-600 energy infrastructure facilities or the air defense sites protecting them in Russia or in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia. Along with the Tuapse, Ukrainian drones since January have carried out multiple strikes against refineries in the Russian region Samara (three separate refineries, each two to three times), Yaroslavl (three times), Leningrad (twice) and Perm (twice), those records showed. Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US .