Ukrainian drone strikes Russian oil refinery deep inside Russia
- 2 April, 11:44
Ukrainian drones struck a Russian oil refinery in Russia’s Tatarstan on Tuesday morning for the first time since the beginning of war in 2022. Located 1,300 km from the frontline, the oil refinery is the third largest in Russia with the processing capacity of 155,000 barrels of crude per day. The governor of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, confirmed there had been drone strikes on Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk enterprises and claimed the industrial output was not disrupted by the attack and there was no serious damage.
Photographs taken at the location suggest that the drone struck the primary refining unit, known as CDU-7, at the refinery. However, it seems that the drone did not cause significant damage.
Russian authorities reported that their jamming equipment intercepted a Ukrainian drone in the vicinity of the Taneco refinery, owned by Tatneft. This refinery boasts an annual production capacity exceeding 340,000 barrels per day.
Ukrainian drones also attacked a factory for collecting Iran-made Shahed drones in Yelabuga. Several people were injured in the attacks against the drone factory, Minnikhanov said. It was not immediately clear if they were workers involved with drone production. Kyiv claims Russia deployed over 4,630 Russian long-range Shahed drones during the 25-month-old war
Ukraine has stepped up its drone attacks on oil refiners in Russia, which is the third largest oil producer in the world, in an attempt to hurt the country’s profitable oil industry and in response to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, including Ukraine’s energy grid.
