Ukraine has launched a blistering attack on an oil pipeline inside Russia in another humiliating blow to Vladimir Putin.
Kyiv’s forces struck oil infrastructure near Bryansk, a city just over 235 miles southwest of Moscow and about 60 miles north of the Ukrainian border.
According to a report of the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces published on Wednesday by The Kyiv Independent, the oil-loading pipeline went up in flames.
An image said to be of footage from the attack shows a huge fireball and smoke billowing across an orange sky after the attack.
Russian authorities claimed the country’s air defences showed down 14 drones over the region, with a production facility set ablaze in Bryansk.
Kyiv said a loading station of the Druzhba oil pipeline was targeted in a joint operation by military intelligence and Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.
The Druzhba pipeline is reportedly one of the world’s longest, carrying oil from western Russia through Ukraine, Poland, Hungry and other European countries.
Ukraine’s General Staff claimed that the pipeline is used to supply Russian forces in occupied Ukraine and to receive, store and distribute diesel for tankers and cargo trains.
Moscow has been targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine in a bid to test the resolve of the Ukrainians by plunging them into a bitter winter.
Russia dealt Ukraine’s power grid a “massive blow” in an aerial attack late last month, according to Herman Halushchenko, Ukrainian Energy Minister.
Meanwhile, a US intelligence assessment revealed on Wednesday that Russia may use its lethal new intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine again soon, according to two American officials.
One of the officials said the Oreshnik missile, which was used for the first time last month, is seen more as an attempt at intimidation than as a game-changer on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The threat comes as both sides work to gain a battlefield advantage in the nearly three-year war, which President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end.
It also comes days after Washington promised close to $1 billion (more than £784,000,000) in new security aid to Ukraine.
Other Western allies have suggested negotiations to end the war could begin this winter.
One of the officials said Washington is seeing potential preparations for another launch by the end of the month or sooner. The other said in the “coming days”. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.
Russia’s Defence Ministry also suggested Moscow is prepared to retaliate because Ukraine used six US-made ATACMS missiles to strike a military air base in Taganrog in the southern Rostov region on Wednesday, injuring soldiers.
It said two of the missiles were shot down by an air defence system, and four others were deflected by electronic warfare assets.
The ministry threatened in a statement: “This attack with Western long-range weapons will not be left unanswered, and relevant measures will be taken.”
Fighting has escalated between both sides as Russia and Ukraine scramble to gain a military and diplomatic upper hand ahead of peace negotiations, which are widely expected after US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House.
