Ukrainian overnight drone strike targets major oil refinery in southern Russia

Ukrainian drones struck a major oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, in southern Russia, on Thursday night, causing one of the plant’s units to catch fire, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Friday.

The attack, which targeted the Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region’s western Seversky District, was part of a larger Ukrainian drone assault on southern and southwestern Russia that the Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Friday led to some 55 Ukrainian drones being intercepted and destroyed.

According to a Krasnodar regional government task force, which did not report any casualties following the drone strike, the fire began when debris from an intercepted drone fell on the Afipsky refinery.

“The fire, which spread over an area of 30 square metres, has already been extinguished. Emergency and special services are working at the scene,” it said Friday morning.

The Afipsky refinery is a significant regional refinery, producing 3,800 tonnes of gasoline and 8,200 tonnes of diesel daily, which the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine says represents approximately 2.1% of Russia’s total refining volume.

Ukrainian drones previously targeted the facility twice in the month of August, according to the Kyiv Independent, forcing its shutdown on one occasion.

The strike on the Afipsky refinery comes as Russia grapples with its worst fuel crunch in years, driven in large part by Ukrainian drones knocking out around 17% of the country’s refining capacity since August. The disruption has sent gasoline prices spiralling and forced the Kremlin to resort to export bans and seek fuel supplies from Belarus.