Fires broke out at an oil refinery, two fuel depots and a sea port in southern Russia after Ukrainian drone attacks, local officials said on Friday. Residents had to leave some of the affected areas.
In the Krasnodar region, the Ilsky refinery went up in flames when drone debris came down across the Severskaya district. Some of it landed in the courtyard of a private home. The plant can handle around 138,000 barrels of oil a day and has been hit several times before.
Next door in the Rostov region, Governor Yury Slyusar wrote on Telegram that firefighters were fighting blazes at two fuel depots in the Azov district and at the Taganrog sea port. Kyiv Post cited early reports that put the fire at Taganrog’s Kurgannefteprodukt oil terminal, where petroleum products are loaded onto and unloaded from sea-going vessels. Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said people were moved out of homes in the affected areas. A private house was damaged and the roof of an administrative building caught fire.
Russian authorities often blame this kind of damage on debris from intercepted drones. Ukrainian and independent accounts frequently describe the same incidents as direct hits.
Fuel shortages at home
The strikes came after President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the repeated attacks were causing fuel shortages across Russia. Last month he said a task force was working on the problem, which he described as “not of a critical nature.” Refinery strikes have contributed to long lines at filling stations and higher prices.
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian energy and other infrastructure in recent months, aiming to weaken Moscow’s ability to pay for the war. Kyiv calls them retaliation for Russia’s near-daily attacks on Ukrainian civilians and energy facilities since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defenses shot down 376 Ukrainian drones overnight, among them aircraft heading toward the Moscow region.
