Fire crews in southern Russia spent Friday fighting blazes at a refinery, two fuel depots and a sea port after Ukrainian drones struck overnight, local officials said. Residents had to be evacuated from some of the affected areas.
In the Krasnodar region, the Ilsky refinery caught fire when drone debris fell across the Severskaya district, landing in the courtyard of one private home. The plant can process around 138,000 barrels of oil a day, and it has been hit several times before.
Next door in the Rostov region, Governor Yury Slyusar said on Telegram that firefighters were working on two fuel depots in the Azov district and at the Taganrog sea port. The Kyiv Post, citing early reports, said the port fire appeared to be at the Kurgannefteprodukt oil terminal, which loads and unloads petroleum products for sea-going vessels.
Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said people were moved out of homes near the fires. A private house was damaged, and the roof of an administrative building burned.
Debris or direct hit
Wording matters here. Russian authorities often blame fires after drone raids on falling debris from intercepted aircraft, while Ukrainian and independent accounts frequently describe the same incidents as direct strikes that worked.
Fuel shortages at home
The raids came after Vladimir Putin admitted that repeated attacks were causing fuel shortages across Russia. Last month he said a task force was working on the problem, but he insisted the difficulties were “not of a critical nature.”
On the ground, the picture looks different. Repeated hits on refineries have contributed to long lines at filling stations and higher prices across the country, DW reported. Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian energy and other infrastructure in recent months to weaken Moscow’s ability to pay for the war.
Kyiv calls the strikes retaliation for Russia’s near-daily attacks on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure since the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defense units intercepted 376 Ukrainian drones overnight, among them aircraft heading for the Moscow region.
