Drone strikes hit oil depots and refineries across several Russian regions and annexed Crimea overnight, causing fires, evacuations, and airport disruptions, Russian officials and local channels reported.
An oil depot in Uryupinsk, Russia’s Volgograd Region, was hit overnight, Governor Andrei Bocharov reported. The strike caused a fire, and residents of nearby homes were evacuated to a temporary shelter. No casualties were reported.
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According to Bocharov, the facility was damaged by a drone attack. The independent outlet Astra reported that the strike hit the AlfaOil depot on Shtemenko Street, which, according to publicly available data, contains 18 tanks storing gasoline and diesel fuel. The same facility was previously attacked on Dec. 3.
Drones also struck the Novo-Yaroslavsky Oil Refinery (PAO Slavneft-YANOS) in Yaroslavl, local Telegram channels reported. The attack occurred just two days after a previous strike on the facility.
A “Carpet” emergency plan was declared at Yaroslavl Airport, which was temporarily closed to all flights.
The Novo-Yaroslavsky refinery is one of the largest in central Russia, with an annual processing capacity of 15 million tons. It is owned by Slavneft, whose shares are almost equally controlled by Rosneft and Gazprom.
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Another drone attack hit the Seversky District of Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, including the village of Afipsky, home to the Afipsky oil refinery, which has a capacity of 9.1 million tons per year and was previously struck on Nov. 29.
According to the regional task force, falling debris caused a fire in a private home, shattered windows in four others, damaged an outbuilding, and knocked down a power line, leaving the village without electricity.
A separate drone strike also caused a fire at an oil depot in annexed Crimea, according to the monitoring channel Krymsky Veter, citing satellite imagery. The facility is located in the village of Bitumne near Simferopol.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed it shot down 141 UAVs overnight, with the largest numbers reported in Bryansk (35), Crimea (32), Krasnodar Krai (22), Tula (15), and Kaluga (13) regions. Ukraine has not commented on its involvement in the attacks.
Kyiv has stepped up attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure since July, arguing that disrupting oil refining and fuel production directly weakens the Kremlin’s ability to wage war.
Early Friday, drones struck the city of Yaroslavl, triggering a major fire at one of central Russia’s largest oil refineries. Residents said they heard about seven explosions before seeing a bright glow and thick smoke rising from the Yaroslavnefteorgsintez refinery. Footage published online shows a large blaze spreading across the facility.
The refinery, part of Slavneft and among Russia’s top five oil-processing plants, was likely hit, according to monitoring groups, though Russian authorities have not confirmed damage.
That strike came less than 24 hours after Ukraine carried out its largest and most wide-ranging combined drone attack of the full-scale war. On Dec. 11, Ukrainian forces launched nearly 300 drones and cruise missiles, hitting targets across western and central Russia over a span of nearly 2,000 kilometers, according to sources reviewed by Kyiv Post.
Ukraine’s campaign focused on five major energy facilities, all of which caught fire after being struck. Four Russian military airfields were also targeted.
About one-fifth of the drones flew toward Moscow, circling above the capital for hours and forcing authorities to issue rare public shelter warnings and shut down all four city airports, stranding thousands of passengers.
One of the most significant strikes occurred far from the front line, when long-range Lyutiy drones hit a Lukoil-operated offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea – about 1,500 kilometers from likely Ukrainian launch sites – setting it ablaze and halting production. It was the first known Ukrainian strike in the Caspian region. No injuries were reported.