Overnight on 6 June, Ukraine allegedly targeted three Russian fuel facilities, according to reports from Russian sources and NASA FIRMS data, including two oil refineries and a fuel depot.
In the past three months, Ukraine has intensified its drone attacks against the Russian oil industry, significantly disrupting fuel supplies crucial for the Russian military, while simultaneously decreasing the Kremlin’s export revenues.
Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov Oblast
Last night, Vasily Golubev, governor of Russia’s Rostov Oblast, reported a drone attack on an oil refinery in Novoshakhtinsk less than 10 kilometers from Russia’s border with the occupied part of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast and about 150 km away from the frontline.
“A UAV attack resulted in a fire at the Novoshakhtinsk Petroleum Products Plant. Emergency services are working at the site. Information on casualties is being clarified,” he wrote, later adding that the fire had expanded to cover an area of 50 square meters, and firefighting efforts were temporarily halted due to a subsequent attack.
Videos posted on social media show a massive fire at the facility.
The governor later claimed that the fire at the refinery was contained within an area of 100 square meters and extinguished by 4:00 a.m., with preliminary reports indicating no fatalities or injuries.
Ukraine allegedly struck three fuel facilities in Russia with drones overnight on 6 June – refineries in Novoshakhtinsk and Slavyansk-na-Kubani, and a depot near Stary Oskol.https://t.co/HMhmSQDzpz
???? Novoshakhtinsk refinery, by TG/Astra pic.twitter.com/8MrcWcl8n0— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 6, 2024
The Novoshakhtynsk Oil Products Plant was previously attacked by Ukrainian drones in March. The attack shut down the plant’s technological facilities. Two more attacks on the plant took place in June 2022 and May 2023.
Slavyansk-na-Kubani and Stary Oskol
Also last night, Russia’s Belgorod Oblast authorities reported a drone attack on another fuel facility.
“The AFU used a kamikaze drone to attack an oil depot in the territory of the Stary Oskol urban district. As a result of the explosion, one of the tanks caught fire. Four fire brigades promptly extinguished the fire. The blast wave blew out the windows in the security building. There were no casualties,” said Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
NASA FIRMS map also shows heat anomalies on the premises of an oil refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani in southwestern Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. However, regional authorities and Russian Telegram channels did not report any attacks on the facility as of the time of the publication of this article.
The previous attack on the refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani occurred on 19 May.
As per usual, Ukrainian officials didn’t confirm or deny any of the attacks. Ukraine’s SBU security service and the Main Directorate of Intelligence have been behind such attacks, according to unofficial reports.
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