In the night of March 14, Ukrainian drones attacked an oil facility in Tuapse, reported the governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev.
"One of the fuel tanks caught fire. The fire covers an area of more than 1,000 square meters, and emergency services are working at the scene. According to preliminary data, there are no casualties," the governor wrote on his Telegram channel.
The head of the Tuapse municipal district, Serhiy Boyko, specified that 121 people and 39 pieces of equipment were involved in extinguishing the fire, which broke out at 3 a.m. "The situation is under control," he assured.
Local residents told Mash that the drones were flying at a low altitude. Several explosions were heard near the oil facility with a five-minute interval between them. Some eyewitnesses claimed that the explosions were so powerful that missiles might have been used in the attack, Astra reports.
The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, Andrii Kovalenko, reported that the plant is one of the largest in Russia, with a processing capacity of approximately 12 million tons of oil per year. The refinery specializes in primary oil processing, producing straight-run gasoline, diesel fuel, and fuel oil, a significant portion of which is exported.
For the Russian army, this plant has strategic importance as it supplies fuel to the Black Sea Fleet and military infrastructure in the south of the country. It is part of the logistical supply chain for fuel used by military equipment and aviation.
Previously, on February 26, Ukrainian drones attacked the Tuapse oil refinery. At that time, two drones fell on the territory of the facility, damaging part of the ELOU-AVT-12 oil processing unit and a crude oil pipeline.
Since the beginning of the year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have attacked more than 30 fuel and energy facilities in at least 16 regions of Russia using drones.
On March 13, Ukrainian drones carried out strikes on industrial enterprises and infrastructure facilities in five Russian regions. In the Kaluga region, Ukrainian military intelligence reported that a strike hit the Kaluga Gas Concrete plant, which was producing drones. In the Saratov region, an electrical substation named Gazovaya in the village of Prigorodny was targeted. Enterprises in the Rostov and Tambov regions also came under attack. In the Voronezh region, drones struck an "infrastructure facility" in the southern part of the region.
