Ukrainian Drones Strike Tuapse Oil Refinery Again

On the night of April 28, a fire broke out at the Tuapse oil refinery due to an attack by Ukrainian drones. According to the operational headquarters of the Krasnodar region, debris from the drones fell on the facility, igniting the fire; however, there are no reported casualties. A firefighting team consisting of 122 personnel and 39 units of equipment responded to the blaze.

This refinery, owned by Rosneft and one of the largest in Russia, is the only one on the Russian coast of the Black Sea and has been targeted previously on April 16 and 20. In earlier attacks, fires had also erupted, and a person was killed during the strike on April 20. Damage was also reported to the oil terminal infrastructure at the Port of Tuapse, which forms a unified complex with the refinery.

Specifically, the storage tanks for oil products were burned, leading Reuters sources to report a halt in processing activities. The fire from April 20 was only extinguished four days later. Due to the damage to the tanks, oil spilled into the sea, spreading approximately 77 km along the coast within a week. Local authorities reported the collection of about 4,200 cubic meters of contaminated soil and water mixture.