Drones attacked two oil refineries just 40-50 miles (65-80 km) east of Russia’s biggest oil export terminals on Wednesday, sparking a fire at one and causing no damage to the other, according to Russian officials.
A drone damaged the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region at around 01:00 GMT, starting a fire that was later extinguished, according to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev.
Reuters reported that the Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea, one of Russia’s most significant oil export hubs, is 50 miles east of the Afipsky refinery.
With the CPC terminal, Novorossiisk transports around 1.5% of the world’s oil to market.
According to local authorities and RIA, a second drone fell into the Ilsky refinery, located around 40 miles east of Novorossiisk.
Earlier this week, the Russian capital was targeted by drone attacks, causing “minor” damage to the building.
According to the officials, several drones had crashed close to the country’s capital on Tuesday.
“This morning, the residents of certain districts in the Moscow region could hear explosions; it was our anti-air missile defence system,” the official said.
“Several drones were shot down while approaching Moscow,” he wrote, urging residents to keep calm and adding that “all rescue services are doing their work”.
Meanwhile, two drones attacked the Kremlin earlier in May but were shot down, and Moscow blamed it on Ukraine.
This is the third time drone attacks have targeted Russia since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022.
