Ukrainian forces hit an oil refinery in Omsk overnight, nearly 2,500 kilometers (around 1,550 miles) from Ukraine’s border, the General Staff said on July 6. Omsk was the last of Russia’s 11 largest gasoline producers that Ukraine had not yet struck, according to the military.
A fire broke out and the damage is still being assessed. Preliminary information points to the ELOU-AVT-11 primary oil refining unit, which the General Staff says has a design capacity of 8.4 million metric tons of crude oil per year.
Omsk is Russia’s largest refinery by capacity and handles more than 21 million metric tons of crude a year. The General Staff said it makes fuels, lubricants and petrochemical products and helps supply the Russian military. Its refining depth is around 99%, one of the highest in the country, the military added.
A night of strikes
Omsk was not the only target. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), working with other branches of the Defense Forces, reported a series of attacks on Russian energy sites and on military targets in occupied Crimea.
Drones hit the Yaroslavl refinery and its oil pumping and dispatch station, and the SBU said explosions and smoke were reported near the refinery. At the port of Vysotsk in Leningrad Oblast, the agency confirmed a strike on an oil terminal that disabled two loading arms and damaged three storage tanks for petroleum products. Drones also went after the First Plant refinery in Kaluga Oblast, where a fire started after explosions.
In Crimea, the SBU said drones struck three aircraft hangars at the Hvardiiske airfield, a Pantsir-S2 air defense system near Simferopol and a mobile fire group in Kerch. A storage tank and a pumping station at the TES-Terminal-1 oil depot were also hit.
Fuel for Crimea
Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, said his units hit two shadow fleet tankers in the Sea of Azov. They carried a combined 7,000 metric tons of fuel bound for Crimea, roughly 200 rail tank cars’ worth by his estimate. Between July 1 and 5, he added, the same forces struck 37 energy nodes across occupied Crimea and other occupied areas of southern Ukraine.
The peninsula is already short of fuel. Authorities there suspended fuel sales entirely on June 21.
SBU chief Yevhenii Khmara framed the campaign in blunt terms. “We are doing everything to ensure that Russia pays every day for its crimes,” he said. “While the enemy shells peaceful Ukrainian cities, its military and fuel infrastructure will continue to suffer significant losses.”
The same night, Russia launched another large attack on Kyiv. It was the second major assault on the capital in four days, and it killed at least 19 people and injured dozens more.
Sources
- Russia’s largest oil refinery in flames as Ukraine strikes Omsk, 2,500 km away from border
- Russia’s largest oil refinery in flames as Ukraine strikes Omsk, 2,500 km away from border
