Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s third largest oil refinery this Tuesday, around 1,300 kilometers from the front lines, hitting a central unit that processes approximately 155,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Russian authorities said their jamming devices were jammed by a Ukrainian drone near the Taneco Refinery, whose annual production capacity is more than 17 million tons (340,000 barrels per day).
There was a fire at the refinery that was extinguished within 20 minutes, state news agency RIA reported, adding that production was not interrupted.
Images from the scene indicated that the drone hit the CDU-7 unit at the Taneco refinery. The unit accounts for around half of the factory’s total annual production capacity.
“A drone attack hit one of the companies in Nizhnekamsk,” said Ramil Mullin, mayor of Nizhnekamsk. “There are no casualties or serious damage. The company’s technological process has not been disrupted,” he added.
The attack was one of several that took place in Tatarstan, a highly industrialized region southeast of Moscow, in the early hours of Tuesday.
A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters in Kiev that Ukraine attacked a major Russian oil facility in Tatarstan to reduce Russia’s oil revenues.
The source also said that the Ukrainian-made drones struck a facility producing “Shahed” long-range attack drones, causing “significant damage.” There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.
Ukraine has in recent months begun attacking the oil refineries of Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, impacting the highly lucrative trade in refined products.
According to Reuters calculations, around 14% of Russia’s refining capacity was affected by drone attacks. There is more demand for refined petroleum products than for Russian crude oil.
