(FreedomBeacon.com)- A Ukrainian news outlet claimed last week that Russian forces bombed an oil refinery in the Luhansk province that is owned and operated by Russia. It is believed the refinery was not in operation at the time of the attack.
The Kyiv Independent alleged that a Russian aircraft inadvertently fired on the oil refinery owned by the Russian state-controlled company, Rosneft in Lysychansk in the eastern province, or oblast, of Luhansk.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk province, first reported the incident on Telegram claiming that Russian troops had “fired at the Lysychansk plant.” Haidai also reported separate shelling in the city of Severodonetsk that he claimed hit people lined up outside of a grocery store, killing one and injuring ten.
According to Haidai, after the shelling, a fire broke out near the Rosneft refinery, and firefighters were called to the scene to battle the blaze.
Rosneft is the second-largest Russian state-controlled company after Gazprom, and one of the most profitable companies in Russia.
The Rosneft refinery in Lysychansk can process as much as 16 million tons of oil a year, however, it has reportedly been closed for repairs for the last ten years.
In more recent news, the head of military administration for the Kyiv region said on Thursday that Russian shells have targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the Bucha, Brovary, and Vyshhorod regions around the capital city.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman said this week that Russian forces have targeted fuel depots in two central Ukraine towns with air-launched long-range cruise missiles. Russian forces hit a Ukrainian special forces headquarters in the Mykolaiv region in the south and two munitions depots in the Donetsk region of Donbas.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said on Wednesday that Russia has begun to reposition almost 20 percent of its forces surrounding Kyiv. Kirby said the troops began moving mostly to the north with some heading into neighboring Belarus. The Pentagon believes Russia is planning to resupply these troops and send them back into Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military has also reported that some Russian airborne units appear to have withdrawn into Belarus.
With the war not going according to plan, Russian military officials are now saying their primary goal is the “liberation” of the predominantly Russian-speaking Donbas region where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
