Ukrainian strike on southern Russian facility leaves casualties at nearby railway station as Kyiv intensifies campaign against energy infrastructure.
A fire broke out at Russia’s Afipsky oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region following a drone attack, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Tuesday, with two people killed and two others injured by falling debris.
Drone Strike Hits Russian Oil Refinery, 2 Killed:
Kondratyev reported the incident on the Telegram messaging app, stating that drones had targeted the settlement of Afipsky, where the refinery is located. Debris fell on the Afipsky railway station, causing the fatalities and injuries. At least 10 private homes in the settlement were damaged, with a fire reported in one of them. A blaze also erupted at the oil refinery itself.
The Afipsky plant is primarily oriented toward exports. It processed 7.2 million metric tons of crude oil in 2024, equivalent to about 144,000 barrels per day. The facility has been hit by Ukrainian drones on multiple occasions in recent months as part of Kyiv’s sustained campaign against Russian energy infrastructure.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil refineries and related sites across Russia in an effort to disrupt Moscow’s war financing and logistics. Just days earlier, on August 21, a Ukrainian drone attack on the Perm oil refinery-Russia’s seventh-largest by processing volume-forced a halt in operations after fire and damage to its technological units, according to industry sources.
Ukraine-Linked Drone Strike Targets Russian Refinery:
Russian authorities have not provided further details on the extent of damage at Afipsky or the status of firefighting efforts. The Krasnodar region, located hundreds of kilometres from the front lines in Ukraine, has faced repeated long-range drone strikes aimed at energy and industrial targets.
The attack forms part of a broader pattern in which Ukraine seeks to degrade Russia’s refining capacity and export revenues, which form a critical pillar of the Russian economy and military effort more than four years into the full-scale war. Moscow continues to conduct its own strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure while advancing on the battlefield.
No immediate comment was available from Ukrainian officials specifically confirming the Afipsky strike, though Ukrainian forces have publicly acknowledged similar operations against Russian refineries in the past.