Ukraine strikes Russian oil facilities as Zelensky pushes for Patriot production licence after Ankara summit

Overnight strikes on Russian energy targets

On the night of 9-10 July, Ukrainian drones attacked Russian energy infrastructure, hitting the Ilsky oil refinery in Krasnodar region, about 500 kilometres from Ukrainian-controlled territory. The refinery, one of the largest in southern Russia, produces nearly 6.6 million tonnes of fuel annually. Simultaneously, drone strikes set ablaze the seaport in Taganrog and two fuel depots in Azov. The governor of Rostov region, Yuri Sliusar, reported no casualties in initial assessments. Russia's Ministry of Defence said air defences intercepted and destroyed 376 UAVs over Russian regions and the Sea of Azov. This was the 17th Ukrainian strike on a Russian refinery; the previous one occurred on 2 June.

Patriot missiles and the push for licensed production

A day after the NATO summit in Ankara, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine will receive a Patriot missile package from the United States "in the coming days" and has also reached separate agreements with European partners. At the summit, US President Donald Trump had agreed to authorise Patriot production in Ukraine under licence. Zelensky stressed that technical teams and government representatives must start working immediately to obtain licences and launch manufacturing. However, Trump's pledge remains vague: he did not specify whether Kiev would be allowed to produce PAC-2 or the much more capable PAC-3 interceptors, and acknowledged he had not yet informed the manufacturers, Lockheed Martin and RTX. Each Patriot interceptor costs roughly $3 million, and US production has been limited to 50-60 units per month, raising questions about the feasibility and timeline of setting up a new production line in a war zone that would itself need protection.

Now it is very important that our technical groups, all our representatives from different ministries and the executive branch, start working non-stop so that Ukraine receives the licences as soon as possible and starts production.

In Kyiv, Zelensky also held what he called a "good meeting" with US Senator Lindsey Graham, noting it was the senator's tenth visit to Ukraine. The two discussed long-range sanctions pressure and air defence needs.

It is important that our long-range sanctions pressure on Russia is strengthened through new sanctions steps by our partners. Lindsey informed me about ongoing work in Congress on a relevant bill.

Moscow warns of escalation and a wider buffer zone

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected Trump's approach, saying there is a "misunderstanding" in the White House that escalation and military pressure can lead to a peaceful resolution. He called it an "erroneous judgment" and warned that further escalation would force Russia to create a larger security zone, a "wider buffer zone," citing President Vladimir Putin's earlier statement that the more Kiev strikes Russian infrastructure, the more Moscow will have to expand the safety belt. Peskov also addressed Trump's suggestion of closing airspace over Ukraine as a security guarantee, describing it as a new statement and characterising any such move as NATO armed forces intervening in Ukraine, which is exactly what the special military operation seeks to prevent. He confirmed that no phone call took place between Trump and Putin after the Ankara bilateral, though Putin remains open to dialogue.

We see some misunderstandings within the White House administration regarding the fact that escalation and military pressure can facilitate a return to a peaceful resolution path. That is an erroneous judgment.

What comes next

Zelensky has ordered his government to push forward with the licensing process, while the US Congress reportedly works on additional sanctions legislation. In Russia, the repeated strikes on energy infrastructure continue to strain the country's refining capacity. With the Patriot production licence still not formalised and details about component sourcing and factory protection unresolved, the coming weeks will test whether the political agreement reached in Ankara can be translated into operational capability.