Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery producing jet fuel for the Russian military and a factory supplying food rations to Russian armed forces in separate overnight attacks on Oct. 30, triggering fires at both facilities, Kyiv Post reports.
The strike on the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in Russia’s Samara region marks the first reported attack on a Russian oil refinery in nearly two weeks, potentially signaling a resumption of Kyiv’s campaign against Russia’s oil industry.
Residents of Novokuybyshevsk reported explosions and air defense activity early on Oct. 30. Regional authorities declared a drone threat at around 6 a.m., by which time the attack was already underway, according to the independent Russian outlet ASTRA.
Based on photographs sent in by readers, ASTRA’s OSINT analyst identified the site of the fire as the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery.
The facility has belonged to Russian oil giant Rosneft since 2007 and has an annual processing capacity of approximately 8.8 million tonnes of crude oil.
It produces more than 20 types of petroleum products, including Euro-5 petrol and diesel, bitumen and petroleum coke, as well as jet fuel used by Russia’s Aerospace Forces.
The refinery has been targeted repeatedly. It was last attacked on Aug. 22, when Ukrainian drones struck the facility and caused a fire. Following Ukrainian strikes on April 18, the plant suspended operations at both of its primary crude distillation units, AVT-11 and AVT-9.
