Video Shows One of Russia's Largest Oil Refineries on Fire After Drone Hit

A video circulating on social media shows a huge fire that engulfed a large Rosneft-owned oil refinery in the southern Russian town of Tuapse on the Black Sea coast in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The refinery's vacuum unit caught fire, said Sergei Boiko, the head of Tuapse district, adding in a post on his Telegram channel that there were no casualties. He warned local residents not to post videos from the scene "to avoid adverse consequences."

Boiko didn't identify the cause of the fire, but numerous Telegram channels said it was the result of a drone strike. Russian Telegram channel 112 reported that there was a drone attack in the region prior to the blaze. The Shot Telegram channel reported that eyewitnesses heard explosions in the area before the fire, and the Baza Telegram channel, which is linked to Russia's security services, said a drone struck the refinery's vacuum unit after midnight local time.

Local officials said early on Thursday that the fire had been extinguished after it was tackled by 99 firefighters and 31 equipment units.

Ukraine hasn't claimed responsibility, and rarely comments on attacks on Russian soil. Newsweek contacted the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Russia's for comment by email.

Russian newspaper Kommersant noted that the facility in southern Krasnodar Krai is the only Russian oil enterprise located on the Black Sea coast. It processed over 180,000 barrels per day of crude oil in the first 17 days of January, equating to more than 3 percent of Russia's total crude-processing volume, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with industry data.

It marks the fourth suspected drone attack on Russian oil and gas infrastructure over the past week, according to the Moscow Times.

On January 18, Ukraine launched a drone attack on a St. Petersburg oil terminal, about 620 miles from the Ukrainian border. It marked the first time a drone had targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin's home region, Leningrad, since the full-scale war in Ukraine began in February 2022.

Another Ukrainian drone attack near the city of St. Petersburg overnight on Sunday struck a major gas export terminal—a Novatek PJSC gas-condensate plant in the port Ust-Luga—causing a huge fire, and halting fuel supplies. Ust-Luga is Russia's largest Baltic port, and Ukraine's Security Service claimed responsibility for that attack, the Kyiv Post newspaper reported.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, the Tendar open-source intelligence channel said Thursday that "the strike against Russian oil facilities in Tuapse, Russia, only days after the successful strike against the Ust-Luga terminal removes all doubt that we are dealing with a targeted effort to eliminate all major Russian oil and gas ports, so that they are rendered useless for any operations."

"This will be a big headache for the Russian war effort. The current attacks are still small in size, using a handful of drones, but already caused considerable damage," the user added. "When Ukraine starts mass-hitting those ports, then the Russian air defense will not be able to stop the outcome, even when destroying 99% of all drones."

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