Russia on Monday suspended the work of its major Ryazan oil refinery near Moscow after Ukrainian drone strikes late last week, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources within the industry.
They reported that the refinery's oil storage had caught fire. The damaged equipment included a railway loading rack and a hydrotreater unit, which is used to eliminate impurities from refined products. "The railway loading equipment has been damaged. There have been no railways loadings, they stopped oil processing," one person said.
Another source stated that loadings have been halted since Friday and confirmed that the plant has been shut down due to the inability to distribute oil products. According to data from a source, the facility produced 2.2 million tons of gasoline, 3.4 million tons of diesel, 4.3 million tons of fuel oil, and 1 million tons of jet fuel.
Ukraine struck the oil refinery with drones on January 24 and 26. The attack was carried out jointly by Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SOS).
With the capacity to process 17 million metric tons of oil per year, the Ryazan Oil Refinery is among Russia’s largest and is key in Russia's military-industrial complex. Ryazan is approximately 500 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border. The latest attack on the refinery was launched on January 24.
