Fires Break Out at Moscow Refinery and Gukovo Oil Depot Following Ukrainian Drone Strikes

Ukrainian drones struck the Moscow Oil Refinery in Moscow’s Kapotnya district on the morning of June 18, sparking a major fire at the facility.

The Exilenova+ Telegram channel shared the video from the scene. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed that the refinery had been hit.

Footage filmed by local residents shows multiple fires burning across the refinery’s grounds, while thick black smoke billows into the sky above the city.

The previous strike by Ukraine’s Defense Forces on the refinery occurred on the morning of June 16. The attack set the ELOU-AVT-6 unit, a facility used to prepare and perform initial processing of crude oil, on fire.

The oil refinery in Kapotnya is among the ten largest oil-refining enterprises in Russia and supplies about 40% of the petroleum products consumed in the Moscow region, including the city of Moscow and the surrounding region.

The refinery currently has a processing capacity of 11 million tons of crude oil per year. It produces AI-80EK, AI-92EK, and AI-95EK gasoline grades, diesel fuel, aviation kerosene, bitumen, sulfur, and various polymers.

Strike on an Oil Depot

During the night, Ukrainian drones also targeted an oil storage facility in Gukovo, Rostov region. The attack ignited storage tanks containing petroleum products.

In the morning, the governor of Rostov region reported that the attack had caused ‘two commercial facilities to catch fire’ and had also damaged a locomotive, according to Astra.

Witnesses reported a series of explosions near the industrial facility, preceded by the sighting of drones flying overhead.

Strikes on Russian oil depots and refineries have in recent months become a regular part of a campaign to destroy infrastructure that generates revenue for the war against Ukraine.

Yesterday, Reuters, citing its own sources, reported that Russia plans to import gasoline by sea in an attempt to address a fuel shortage that emerged after large-scale drone attacks on oil refining infrastructure and fuel tankers.

According to the agency, in June, Russia – one of the world’s largest exporters of oil and petroleum products – is set to receive a shipment of gasoline through a western seaport.