A drone was caught on camera slamming into a Russian oil refinery near the Ukrainian border on Wednesday, causing a fire to erupt.
The incident occurred at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov region, about 10 miles from the border with Ukraine’s Luhansk province. The plant said two drones flying from the direction of Ukraine hit the refinery, sparking a fire and suspending production. The plant and Russian officials are pinning the attack on Ukraine.
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“As a result of terrorist actions from the Western border of the Rostov region, two unmanned aerial vehicles struck at the technological facilities of Novoshakhtinsk,” the plant said, according to Reuters.
The governor of the Rostov region told Russian state-run media on Wednesday that preliminary information suggests the drones came from Ukraine.
“Under one version, the fire erupted as a result of an attack by unmanned aerial vehicles that were of Ukrainian manufacture,” Gov. Vasily Golubev said.
There were no reports of injuries from the fire.
Video footage purportedly of the incident shows one of the white drones flying at a low altitude straight into the refinery. A blast is then heard, and black smoke billows into the air as a large fire engulfs the part of the facility.
#Ukraine: A Kamikaze drone struck the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, in #Rostov Oblast, Russia; causing a large fire.
Although the precise type is unclear, it appears to be based on the UA PD-1 or PD-2 series of reconnaissance UAVs. The area is around 150km from the front line. pic.twitter.com/EssUu6PxyB
— ?? Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 22, 2022
The drone caught on video hit a crude distillation unit and triggered an explosion, according to the plant. A second drone struck crude oil reservoirs at the refinery but did not cause a fire.
The Novoshakhtinsk plant is the only refinery in Russia’s Rostov region and is owned by a company linked to Oksana Marchenko, the wife of pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is in Ukrainian custody on high treason charges, according to Tass.
The state-run Russian media outlet also reported that there have been allegations that the refinery has been delivering fuel to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
In April, multiple fuel depots near the Ukrainian border in Russia were plagued by fires.
One fire broke out at the Druzhba oil depot in Bryansk, Russia, located north of Ukraine’s Sumy region. A second fire broke out at a nearby facility in Bryansk. No cause has been given for these fires.
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A third fire at a fuel depot in Russia’s Belgorod region, 25 miles from the border, was the result of a helicopter attack that Russian officials accused Ukraine of orchestrating.
Ukrainian officials have not claimed responsibility for any alleged attacks on Russian soil.
