KYIV
\nUkrainian forces hit an important fuel pipeline in the Moscow region that supplies the Russian army, Ukraine\u2019s military intelligence said Saturday, a claim that came amid a sustained Russian campaign of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure.
\nThe operation was carried out late Friday, according to a statement on the Telegram messaging channel. The agency, which is known by its acronym HUR, described it as a \u201cserious blow\u201d to Russia\u2019s military logistics.
\nHUR said its forces struck the Koltsevoy pipeline, which spans 400 kilometers (250 miles) and supplies the Russian army with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.
\nThe operation, which targeted infrastructure near Ramensky district, destroyed all three fuel lines, HUR said.
\nThe pipeline was capable of transporting up to 3 million tons of jet fuel, 2.8 million tons of diesel and 1.6 million tons of gasoline annually, HUR said.
\n\u201cOur strikes have had more impact than sanctions,\u201d said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of HUR, referring to international sanctions on Russia imposed over its all-out war and the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
\nMoscow strains to take key eastern city
\nMeanwhile, Russia\u2019s defense ministry on Saturday claimed its forces defeated a team of Ukrainian special forces that were rushed to the eastern front-line hotspot of Pokrovsk in a bid to stop Russian troops from pushing further into the city.
\nRussia and Ukraine have presented conflicting accounts of what is happening in Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed last week that his forces had encircled the city\u2019s Ukrainian defenders.
\nBut the spokesman for Ukraine\u2019s eastern forces, Hryhorii Shapoval, told The Associated Press last week that the situation in Pokrovsk is \u201chard but under control.\u201d On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that some Russian units had infiltrated the city, but insisted that Ukraine is weeding them out.
\nKyiv did not immediately comment on the Russian defense ministry\u2019s latest claim. But Zelensky said last week that Russia had deployed around 170,000 troops in Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donetsk region, where Pokrovsk lies, in a major push to capture the city and claim a major battlefield victory.
\nPutin is trying to persuade the United States, which wants him to seek a peace deal, that Ukraine can\u2019t hold out against Russian military superiority. He has also stressed what he says is Russia\u2019s improving nuclear capability as he refuses to budge from what he says are his country\u2019s legitimate war aims.
\nA key goal for Moscow has been to take all of Ukraine\u2019s industrial heartland of Donbas, made up of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Kyiv still controls about a tenth of the coal-rich region.
\nRussian nighttime strikes kill a civilian and injure 15 more
\nElsewhere, a civilian died and 15 more were injured after Russia struck southern Ukraine with a ballistic missile on Saturday morning, local official Vitaliy Kim said. A child is among those injured in the strike on the Mykolaiv region, he said and added that Russia used an Iskander missile.
\nAnother Russian strike early Saturday sparked a fire at a gas plant in the central Poltava region, Ukraine\u2019s emergency service reported.
\nThe latest strikes came as Russia keeps up massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure \u2014 attacks that brought power outages and restrictions across Ukraine earlier this week, in what Kyiv described as a \u201csystematic energy terror.\u201d
\nMoscow launched 223 drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday, 206 of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force. Seventeen struck targets in seven Ukrainian regions, the air force said, without providing details.
\nRussia also hit an agricultural enterprise in Ukraine\u2019s northern Chernihiv region, injuring a 66-year old woman there, according to a Telegram update by regional government official Viacheslav Chaus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Ukrainian forces hit an important fuel pipeline in the Moscow region that supplies the Russian army, Ukraine\u2019s military intelligence said Saturday, a claim that came amid a sustained Russian campaign of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure. The operation was carried out late Friday, according to a statement on the Telegram […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-512085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n