Russian oil terminals hit by drone strikes

Ukraine has hit several Russian oil refineries with drone strikes in the past few days, continuing to damage Russian oil infrastructure after attacks on coastal refineries at the beginning of the year.

The governor of Russia’s Oryol region Andrey Klychkov stated that a fire broke out on Tuesday at an oil refinery in the region’s namesake city after being hit by a Ukranian drone attack. First responders have been deployed to the scene. Klychkov said the fire was caused by a drone attack but without casualties. The Oryol region is located some 220 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.

Also, authorities in the country’s Nizhny Novgorod region reported that several drones hit the Kstovo industrial zone, targeting a facility within an oil refinery. A fire broke out at one of the oil refining units. Lukoil confirmed to local media that operations at the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez facility were temporarily suspended “due to the incident.”

Another target for drone and missile attacks was the Belgorod region which was, according to Russian media sources, struck 30 times over the weekend with six casualties. Belgorod borders the Ukrainian regions of Sumy, Kharkiv, and Luhansk, and is frequently used to launch attacks against Ukraine.

These attacks come after Ukrainian attacks on refineries in Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea and Tuapse on the Black Sea. Namely, Novatek’s huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex in Ust-Luga was damaged in January by a Ukrainian drone attack. It resumed production in February while fuel loadings resumed in late January. In 2023, the Ust-Luga complex processed 7m metric tons of gas condensate. Another Ukrainian drone strike on January 25 caused a major fire at Rosneft’s 240,000 bpd Tuapse refinery on the Black Sea coast.

Both these attacks followed strikes on an oil product depot in Bryansk and an attempted drone attack on the St. Petersburg oil terminal.