# Ukraine says March drone interceptions hit record as Tuapse refinery burns again
Ukraine says its air defenses shot down more than 33,000 Russian drones of various types in March, a monthly record since the full-scale invasion began more than four years ago.
The figure comes as Kyiv continues to expand both its defensive and offensive drone operations. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine has scaled up interceptor drones and created a new air-force command to strengthen that capability. The defense ministry also said the country’s deep-strike range has more than doubled since Russia’s invasion, from about 630 kilometers to roughly 1,750 kilometers behind enemy lines.
That range increase is not just a technical milestone. It has changed what Ukraine can reach. According to the ministry, the longer reach has allowed strikes on Russian oil infrastructure that supports Moscow’s war economy and on manufacturing plants that supply the military. In the latest example, Ukrainian forces said they hit a Russian oil refinery at Tuapse on the Black Sea for the third time this month.
Local officials in Russia said the strike caused fires and forced evacuations near the refinery. Video released by Krasnodar regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev showed a thick plume of black smoke rising above the site, while an emergency official said boiling oil products had spilled onto a street and damaged cars. President Vladimir Putin said the strikes could cause serious environmental consequences, even as regional authorities said there was no immediate serious threat.
The attack on Tuapse is part of a wider campaign to disrupt Russian energy assets. Ukrainian officials say the two earlier strikes this month destroyed 24 storage tanks and damaged four others, though independent verification was not possible. The refinery appears to have become a repeated target because of both its symbolic and practical importance.
At the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted 186 Ukrainian drones overnight across several regions, including annexed Crimea and the Black and Azov seas. The ministry also reported that three people were killed and three wounded in a drone attack in Belgorod. Ukrainian authorities said Russian strikes killed three civilians and wounded five others, including people in Chuhuiv, Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv and Konotop.
The broader picture is of a war that is increasingly shaped by drones. Ukraine has turned interceptor systems into a core layer of defense and long-range drones into a weapon against Russian energy revenue. Russia, in turn, continues to launch large overnight attacks that strain Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
The record March interception figure will likely be used by Kyiv to show resilience and adaptation. But the repeated Tuapse strikes show that Ukraine is no longer focused only on stopping incoming drones. It is also trying to push the war deeper into Russian territory and impose costs that reach far beyond the front line.
Event date: 2026-04-28
