Russia claims to have extinguished a fire at a large oil refinery following the latest Ukrainian drone attacks

Russia announced on Thursday that an attack by a Ukrainian drone had put out a fire in an oil refinery located in the southern Krasnodar Region. The drone was part of a campaign launched by Kyiv against President Vladimir Putin's most important economic sector.

Kyiv is hosting a conference this month

Drone attacks intensified

On Russian oil refineries, and infrastructure for exporting to show that it can fight back while the United States attempts to broker a peaceful deal.

According to calculations made this week, the Ukrainian attacks on ten plants disrupted 17% or 1.1 millions barrels of refinery capacity in Russia.

The Ukrainian military announced on Thursday that its drones hit the Afipsky Refinery in Krasnodar, which they said was supplying fuel to the Russian Army.

It also said that its drones struck another facility, the Kuibyshev Refinery in Russia's Samara Region where a fire was said to have broken out.

No official confirmation has been given by Russia of an attack on Samara. However, the Russian Defence Ministry stated in a press release that they had shot down 102 Ukrainian drones in seven different regions overnight, including Samara.

Vyacheslav Federishchev, governor of Samara said that 21 Ukrainian drones were destroyed. He also stated that the fire, which broke out in response to the attack, was quickly extinguished.

In a written statement, he complained about what he termed "attempts" to destroy infrastructure objects. He did not specify what caught fire. Residents were also told not to post videos or photos of the attack's aftermath.

It was not immediately apparent the extent of damage at the Krasnodar plant. Industry sources claim that the facility will process 7.2 million tons of crude oil by 2024, and 3,000,000 tons from January to June 2025.

This month, several regions of Russia and Ukraine that it controls reported gasoline shortages after Ukraine intensified its attacks in response to a surge in seasonal fuel demand.

On July 28, Russia banned the export of gasoline by oil producers in an effort to avoid shortages during a period of high demand due to summer travel and harvesting of grain. Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Writing by Andrew Osborn/Gleb Stolyarov; editing by Andrew Osborn

(source: Reuters)