Ukraine is overloading Russia's air defenses: 71 drones overnight and at least 10 oil and gas targets — ISW

The strikes reached Chelyabinsk (over 1,800 km); in Crimea, large landing ships and the reconnaissance vessel "Ivan Khurs" were damaged

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27 Apr 2026

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Ukrainian forces have identified a critical vulnerability in Russia’s air-defense system and in recent weeks have been systematically striking targets in Russia and on the occupied peninsula, according to a recent analysis by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

“Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign continues to exploit overloaded Russian air-defense systems to damage oil infrastructure and military facilities in Russia and occupied Crimea,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.

Experts estimate that in the past two weeks at least 10 oil and gas processing facilities in Russia have been hit, including a strategic plant in Yaroslavl with a design capacity of about 15 million tons per year; the strike caused a large fire at the facility.

At the same time Ukrainian forces struck a number of military targets in Crimea. According to the SBU, large landing ships of the “Yamal-Ropucha” Project 775 and “Filchenkov-Tapir” Project 1171, the reconnaissance ship “Ivan Khurs”, an air-defense radio-technical headquarters and the MR-10M1 Mys-M1 radar, as well as an interceptor MiG-31, were damaged.

The occupation governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, acknowledged that these attacks were among the most extensive: according to him, at least 71 drones were launched overnight.

ISW explains the effectiveness of the Ukrainian campaign by a combination of two factors — the overextension of Russia’s rear areas, which cannot be fully covered by air defenses, and the ramp-up in Ukrainian UAV production. A notable example was the strike on Chelyabinsk on 25 April, more than 1800 kilometers from the border.