Ukraine hits oil storage facility and chemical plant in Russia

Drone warfare

Ukraine hits oil storage facility and chemical plant in Russia

The Ukrainian drone strikes continue to harm the Russian oil industry and thus also the war economy. There is a fire again in a facility on the Black Sea – and not just there.

With another drone attack, Ukraine set fire to an oil storage facility in the Black Sea metropolis of Novorossiysk, which has already been attacked several times. Parts of a downed drone fell on the site of a fuel terminal, the operational staff of the Krasnodar Region said. Fires broke out in some technical and administrative buildings. There were two injured, the authorities said.

Eyewitnesses reported on social networks that the Grushovaya oil terminal of the energy company Transneft caught fire. It is one of the largest oil deposits in the Caucasus with underground and surface reservoirs – including a transshipment point. The oil industry facilities in Novorossiysk, which are important for Russia’s war economy, have repeatedly been targets of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Ukrainian President Zelensky said of the drone operation against the facility: “Oil and gas in particular have made Russia so arrogant that it now allows itself to wage war in the modern world and continue to threaten everyone else.” He announced further strikes against Russian targets with the new long-range drones.

Ukraine has massively expanded its drone attacks against targets in the Russian hinterland. The Russian Defense Ministry reported the night-time shooting down of 348 drones. This number cannot be independently verified. As always, the ministry did not provide any information about hits.

However, there were reports from authorities of damage caused by drone attacks in several Russian regions, including Anapa on the Black Sea. In the Perm region, authorities also reported an attack on an industrial plant. A fire is said to have broken out in a chemical factory in the city of Gubakha. The plant is one of the largest methanol producers in Russia.

Ukrainian President Zelensky praised the armed forces for the strike on the target around 1,700 kilometers from his country’s border. “A Russian company of the military-industrial complex that supports the operation of other Russian military production facilities, as well as the production of explosives and components for aviation equipment and drones,” he said in a video message.

The Ukrainian Air Force, in turn, reported 124 Russian drone attacks in the morning. Air defense said 102 flying objects had been rendered harmless. As a result of the Russian attacks, twelve strikes by combat drones were recorded in nine locations and falling debris in five locations, it said.

More than four years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, drone warfare now dominates the fighting. On the ground, however, there are significantly fewer troop movements and changes than in the first years of the war due to the danger of missile attacks. According to both sides, the fighting is at an impasse.