The numbers coming out of Clement Molin's latest tally are brutal for the Kremlin in a way their propaganda machine simply cannot spin. By 2026 at least 28 of Russia's roughly 48 oil refineries have been hit, with a total of 81 separate strikes, and the follow-up attacks prove this is a deliberate campaign to shred critical nodes that take weeks or months to repair.
The Scale of the Refinery Campaign
Seventeen of the top twenty largest plants were damaged in the first eight months alone. Follow-up attacks hit the same sites repeatedly: six times on Yaroslavl, five on Ilsky, Saratov, Syzran, and Tuapse, and four on Kstovo, TAIF-NK, Ufa Bashneft, and Volgograd. That is targeted harassment, a deliberate campaign to shred the critical nodes that take weeks or months to repair, turning what should be temporary outages into structural collapse of refining capacity.
Strikes on storage tanks, transit hubs, and major fuel depots, 26 hits in all, plus 11 strikes on export terminals like Novorossiysk, Ust-Luga, and Primorsk, compound the damage. Production has become uneven. It has slowed, sometimes halted outright. The result is widespread fuel shortages across multiple Russian regions, with queues stretching for hours and in some places nearly a full day.
Reaching Deep Into the Rear
Moscow's own refineries feeding the capital have been hammered hard enough that even the most protected city in their fairy tale cannot pretend its skies are safe. Ukrainian drones have reached Tobolsk, Omsk, and Perm, flying deep into the rear with increasing range and precision. Losing the initiative means the other side is now setting the pace.
Every time the Kremlin claims these are "mere terrorist acts" or that repairs are swift, the next wave lands and proves them liars again. The financial bleed is real. Sanctions already squeezed them. Now their own refining bottlenecks and lost export revenue add another layer they can only partially offset with higher oil prices and whatever scraps Iran throws their way.
Dismantling the Economic Backbone
Their entire petroleum chain, from extraction to export, has absorbed nearly 130 strikes this year. Even an imperial petrostate that views its people as disposable cannot sustain this.
The deeper point is simpler. Ukraine is systematically dismantling the economic backbone that funds the invasion. While Moscow throws North Korean rockets and Iranian drones at our cities and civilian infrastructure, we are turning their cash cow into a burning wreck. Symmetry is absent here. It is corrective justice delivered at range.
The map of burning red diamonds across their territory says otherwise. Their rear is on fire. Their logistics are cracking. The bill for decades of force is finally coming due in the terms they respect.
Every refinery hit, every storage tank torched, every percentage point of refining capacity taken offline shortens the war on terms that favor us. The Kremlin still believes it can outlast everyone through terror and attrition.
