Drone debris came down across the Severskaya district in Russia’s Krasnodar region on Friday, and the Ilsky oil refinery caught fire. Some of it landed in the courtyard of a private home. Local officials gave that account, according to DW.
The Ilsky plant can process around 138,000 barrels of oil a day and has been hit several times before.
Next door in the Rostov region, firefighters fought blazes at two fuel depots in the Azov district and at the Taganrog sea port, Governor Yury Slyusar said on Telegram. The Kyiv Post, citing early reports, said the fire seemed to be at Taganrog’s Kurgannefteprodukt oil terminal, which loads and unloads petroleum products for sea-going ships.
Residents were evacuated from homes in the affected areas, Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said. A private house was damaged, and the roof of an administrative building burned.
Whose account to trust depends on who is speaking. Russian authorities often blame fires after drone attacks on falling debris from intercepted drones, DW noted, while Ukrainian and independent accounts frequently describe the same incidents as direct hits. Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defense units shot down 376 Ukrainian drones overnight, including some approaching the Moscow region.
Fuel shortages at home
The strikes came just after President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that repeated attacks were causing fuel shortages across Russia. Last month he said a task force was working to ease them, but called the problems “not of a critical nature.”
Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian energy and other infrastructure in recent months, aiming to weaken Moscow’s ability to fund and sustain the war. Repeated hits on refineries have contributed to long lines at filling stations and higher prices, DW reported.
Kyiv describes the strikes as retaliation for Russia’s near-daily attacks on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
