“Upgraded Firepoint drones have put Siberia within reach of Ukrainian precision,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address after Ukraine struck Russia’s largest oil refinery on Monday. He called the attack an “important achievement” for his forces.
The refinery is in Omsk, in Western Siberia, and processes about 21 million tons of oil a year. It lies about 1,700 miles from Ukrainian territory, roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Houston. Ukraine’s forces say it was their furthest drone attack of the war.
Claims and confirmations
Omsk governor Vitaly Khotsenko confirmed the attack, saying “enemy UAVs” had hit the refinery. No casualties had been reported at that point. He urged residents not to “approach the debris” but gave no estimate of the damage.
Footage on social media pointed to at least one major fire. Several columns of the plant’s main processing unit, the ELOU-AVT-11, were filmed pouring out smoke.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces took responsibility and said it was the first time they had hit Omsk. “This is the deepest long-range strike on enemy territory during the entire time of the full-scale invasion,” the unit wrote on its Telegram channel. It described the ELOU-AVT-11 as “the most important unit of the enterprise” and said the unit was damaged.
The drone behind it
Denys Shtilierman, chief designer at the Ukrainian munitions firm Fire Point, wrote on X that a new variant of the company’s FP-1 was used. The fixed-wing FP-1 usually carries a payload of up to 60 kg. Its initial range was 1,000 miles and was later extended to 1,600 miles. Shtilierman said the latest jet-launched version can fly 2,110 miles, well past the distance to Omsk. Fire Point did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Long-range attack drones are much slower than traditional missiles but far cheaper. They have become a pillar of Ukraine’s effort to undermine the oil and gas industries that Russia’s economy depends on.
Pressure on Russian fuel
The tempo has risen lately: Kyiv reports more than 50 attacks on Russian oil infrastructure since March. Ukraine’s General Staff said last week that the strikes had hit about 42% of Russia’s total oil refining capacity.
Just over half of Russia’s 83 regions have introduced fuel rationing in recent weeks, and official figures show national gasoline production down 17% to 850,000 barrels a day. Vladimir Putin acknowledged earlier this month that the country faced fuel shortages but dismissed them as temporary and “not critical.” He said Moscow plans to rapidly increase production of air defense systems to protect the skies above its refineries.
