Ukraine\u2019s army said on Saturday it struck a Russian oil refinery in the Ryazan region near Moscow, as \u201cpart of efforts to reduce the enemy\u2019s ability to launch missile and bomb strikes\u201d. Explosions and a large fire were observed at the site, said the military. Ryazan is located about 200km (125 miles) south-east of Moscow.<\/p>\n
Russian officials often do not admit such attacks have succeeded, and the Ryazan governor, Pavel Malkov, adopted the standard line that Ukrainian drones were shot down but debris happened to hit the target. \u201cFalling debris caused a fire on the premises of one enterprise,\u201d Malkov said. A wave of 25 Ukrainian drones attacked the region, Malkov said.<\/p>\n
Officials in southern Ukraine<\/a> said four people were killed by Russian attacks on Saturday. Prosecutors in the Kherson region said \u201cthree civilians are known to have been killed\u201d in the village of Myklitskyi and the city of Kherson. The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Federov, said a Russian attack killed one person.<\/p>\n The US will not lift sanctions on Serbian oil company NIS unless Belgrade terminates the firm\u2019s majority Russian ownership, Serbia\u2019s energy minister said on Saturday, warning that her country faced \u201cdifficult\u201d decisions. Washington sanctioned Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) as part of its crackdown on the Russian energy sector. Analysts say Serbia is on the brink of a winter energy crisis with its lone oil refinery facing a potential shutdown.<\/p>\n Serbia\u2019s energy minister, Dubravka \u0110edovi\u0107 Handanovi\u0107, said the US wanted a \u201ccomplete change of Russian shareholders\u201d to be negotiated by 13 February before lifting sanctions. NIS is 45% owned by Gazprom Neft, which has been targeted by US sanctions. Neft\u2019s parent company, Gazprom, has transferred its own 11.3% stake in NIS to another Russian firm, Intelligence. The Serbian state holds nearly 30% of NIS, with the rest owned by minority shareholders. Handanovi\u0107 suggested the Serbian government was looking at a possible Russian takeover of NIS and would hold a special cabinet meeting about it on Sunday.<\/p>\n Ukraine has recorded a threefold increase in the number of attacks on its railway system since July, according to a senior minister, as Moscow seeks to scupper one of Kyiv\u2019s key logistical systems, Peter Beaumont writes<\/a>. The rail network carries more than 63% of the country\u2019s freight \u2013 including grain shipments \u2013 and 37% of passenger traffic, according to the state statistics service. Military assistance from foreign countries often arrives by train. Oleksii Kuleba, a deputy prime minister, said: \u201cWhat we have seen in these escalating attacks is that they are going after trains, especially trying to kill the drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n