Fire breaks out at Yaroslavl refinery after reported Ukrainian drone attack

Yaroslavl, Russia. A major oil refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region caught fire after what regional governor Mikhail Evrayev described as the largest Ukrainian drone attack on the region to date.

Evrayev said emergency services were working to extinguish the blaze after drone debris struck the refinery’s storage tanks. Four people suffered shrapnel wounds and no deaths were reported.

Drone attack

Evrayev said in a Telegram statement that air defence and electronic warfare units had shot down all 93 drones involved in the attack.

Unverified images posted on social media showed thick black smoke rising above the facility.

Ukrainian statement

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had struck two Russian oil refineries: the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Bashkortostan and the Slavneft-Yanos refinery in the Yaroslavl region.

There was no immediate comment from Russian officials in Bashkortostan.

Refinery capacity

The Yaroslavl refinery, which has previously been targeted by Ukraine, has a processing capacity of 15 million metric tonnes a year, or about 300,000 barrels per day.

Ukraine has increased attacks on Russian oil refineries in recent months, contributing to fuel shortages that authorities have stabilised in many parts of Russia, although government officials say problems remain in some areas.