The head of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on strikes against Russian refineries: Ukraine acts in self-defense

The strikes by Ukrainian forces on Russian oil refineries are acts of self-defense.

This was stated by French Foreign Minister Stephan Saezurne at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"These strikes on Russian refineries do not evoke almost any comments from our side. The Ukrainian people are acting at their own discretion, within the framework of self-defense," the minister emphasized.

He also reminded that Russia is the aggressor, so "under such conditions, it is difficult to say anything else."

It is worth noting that explosions are increasingly occurring at Russian oil refineries lately. The cause of these explosions is drone attacks.

Ukrainian Defense Forces are behind these attacks. As of March 15, only in 2024, there have been 15 attacks on Russian refineries, and significant damage has been inflicted on eight plants.

Today, on April 2, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine attacked an oil processing unit at a refinery in Nizhnekamsk, resulting in a fire.

The capacity of such a unit is 8 million tons of oil. This, in turn, accounts for 2.6% of the total annual oil processing in the Russian Federation.