Ukraine strikes Russian oil refineries hours after US waives sanctions on Moscow’s oil

Key Points:

• Ukraine launched drone attacks overnight targeting two Russian refineries in the Samara region, an oil terminal in Krasnodar, the Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk, and an oil depot in occupied Crimea, as confirmed by Ukrainian officials and regional Russian authorities.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have intercepted 258 Ukrainian drones, but regional officials reported fires and damage at the targeted industrial facilities, with emergency services actively responding.
• The attacks were explicitly linked by Ukraine to the recent US decision to renew a waiver allowing the sale of sanctioned Russian crude oil until May 16, which Kyiv condemned as "cynicism" costing "Ukrainian lives."
• The US Treasury granted the waiver to ease global oil price pressures amid ongoing conflicts, despite earlier statements that the waiver would not be renewed, highlighting tensions between sanction enforcement and energy market stability.
• The extension of the waiver could allow Russia to export an additional 100 million barrels of oil, further boosting its energy revenues, which nearly doubled in March compared to February, despite Western sanctions aimed at curbing Moscow's war financing.