Ukrainian authorities did not comment on the attack by midday Sunday, but Kyiv acknowledged targeting the Taman port’s oil export facilities earlier this year. With Russia’s fossil-fuel earnings funding its war on Ukraine, Kyiv views oil export sites as key targets.
After Moscow intensified its attacks on Ukrainian power infrastructure last year, the two sides briefly halted energy-related strikes as part of a U.S.-brokered moratorium in late January. The pause, however, was short-lived.
The strike on the Taman port came one week after Russia launched a major attack on Ukrainian energy facilities, compounding the situation for the country’s battered power sector. Russian strikes have left households in Kyiv without power and heating amid freezing temperatures.
On Friday, the United Nations’ monitoring mission in Ukraine condemned Russia’s repeated attacks on Kyiv’s energy infrastructure as showing “a grave disregard for the lives and well-being of civilians.”