A swarm of Ukrainian drones have hit a major power station in Russia’s Ryazan region, causing a major fire to rip through the site. Kyiv’s army has been targeting Russian energy infrastructure in a campaign of deadly precision attacks.

The aim is to cripple Russian oil production and prevent the Kremlin from raising cash for its senseless war in Ukraine. At the same time, the attacks are designed to disrupt Putin’s war machine by stopping fuel supplies to the front. The unrelenting strikes have led to fuel shortages throughout Russia, with motorists forced to queue for hours outside petrol stations to fill up their tanks.

In the latest attack, at least seven drones crashed into the thermal power plant in Novomichurinsk, lighting up the Ryazan GRES.

Video images shared to social media channels show multiple impacts across the energy complex, as the drones evaded Russia’s layered air-defence systems.

As usual, local authorities tried to deny that any damage had been caused, claiming that all the drones had been shot down. The region’s governor, Pavel Malkov, acknowledged that attack drones had passed over the region but insisted that air defences “destroyed all eight UAVs.

However, local residents begged to differ, posting visual evidence of the devastation, despite a ban on doing so.

The OSINT Telegram channel Supernova+ was quick to help share the video of the blaze, adding: “Novomichurinsk … Ryazan region … Bat-man lit up ‘Ryazan GRES’ blocks 4 and 5 completely destroyed .. We will play this game together …”

The targeted power station is part of Russia’s Unified Energy System for the central regions and feeds high-voltage 500 kV and 220 kV lines.

With roughly 3,000 MW of installed capacity, it supplies a substantial share of electricity to the surrounding territory.

The continual attacks on energy infrastructure are having a substantial impact, according to the former head of Poland’s Intelligence Service.

“Ukraine has managed to damage or destroy between 35% to 40% of the refining capacity of Russia,” Piotr Krawczyk told the Express.

“They have managed to destroy or disable a lot of export terminals and a lot of the transport infrastructure for oil, gas, and the byproducts of oil and gas.”