UKRAINIAN advances in military drone technology were underlined today by reports that another oil facility deep inside Russia had been bombed.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it had struck an oil pumping station near the city of Perm as part of efforts to target Russia’s energy infrastructure. Perm lies in the Ural mountains, more than 900 miles from the border.

This followed a claim by Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov that Ukraine had used interceptor systems to shoot down more than 33,000 Russian drones of various types in March, setting a new monthly record.

Perm Governor Dmitry Makhonin said only that a drone had hit an unspecified industrial facility today, sparking a fire.

Advanced drone technology has become a defining feature of the war, with both sides developing new ordnance for both attack and defence.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video on Telegram today of a large plume of black smoke rising near a built-up area, without specifying what was hit.

He said his country was expanding the range of its long-distance strikes in an effort to deny Russia crucial oil revenue.

The attack came a day after Ukraine struck the Tuapse oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks.

The Russian Defence Ministry said today that its own air defences had intercepted 98 Ukrainian drones overnight across Russian regions and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Ukraine is now poised to export its drone know-how to countries in the Middle East, the Gulf, Europe and the Caucasus, Mr Zelensky said on Telegram on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile Russian bombardment injured eight people in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, while in nearby Sumy region a 60-year-old woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of an attack.

On the diplomatic front, Kiev accused Israel on Tuesday of allowing imports of grain stolen by Russia from occupied areas of eastern Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky said a vessel carrying grain had arrived at an Israeli port and was preparing to unload, calling the trade illegal and warning of sanctions against those involved.

Israel claimed the vessel had not yet entered the port or submitted its documents, but MarineTraffic.com website showed it has been in Haifa for several days.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed Mr Zelensky’s comments as “Twitter diplomacy.”