Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Oil Refineries, Samara Region, Baltic Sea Port

Ukrainian drones struck several Russian oil facilities overnight, including two oil refineries in the Samara region and a Baltic Sea port that exports petroleum products, according to Russian local governors and a Ukrainian army official. Ukrainian troops have recently increased attacks on Russian oil depots and refineries, key sources of revenue for Moscow's war budget, sometimes targeting sites thousands of kilometers from Ukraine's borders.

In the Leningrad region, which surrounds St. Petersburg and borders Finland, Governor Alexander Drozdenko reported that a fire had been extinguished at the Vysotsk port. The port houses a terminal operated by Lukoil, handling exports of fuel oil, naphtha, diesel, and vacuum gas oil. In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, acknowledged the port attack and stated that Ukrainian forces also attacked oil refineries in the cities of Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran in the Samara region. Both sites have been repeatedly struck during Russia's war in Ukraine. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, the Samara region governor, confirmed that industrial targets came under strike but did not name the specific facilities.

Commander Brovdi stated that recent strikes on Russia's oil logistics at Primorsk, Ust-Luga, Sheskharis, and Tuapse reduced total daily oil shipments by approximately 880,000 barrels. Reuters could not immediately verify this figure. Brovdi also reported an attack on an oil depot in Russian-occupied Sevastopol in Crimea. He criticized the US decision to renew a waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea.

Separately, authorities in the southern Krasnodar region said that a fire at an oil depot in Tikhoretsk, and another at an oil terminal at the Black Sea port of Tuapse, which had burned since Thursday, have been extinguished. Authorities have attributed both fires to Ukrainian drone strikes.