New Strike on Russia’s Unecha Destroys Pumping Station and Halts Druzhba Oil Pipeline

Satellite images show the destruction of a Druzhba oil pipeline pumping station at Unecha in Russia’s Bryansk region, forcing the pipeline offline.

The images were published by the Telegram channel Exilenova+.

According to the photos, the Ukrainian strike and subsequent fire completely destroyed the pumping station building.

The roof collapsed along its entire length, and several smaller technical facilities and nearby equipment were also destroyed.

The latest strike was carried out by Ukrainian drones on the evening of August 21st. At the time, Robert Brovdi, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Unmanned Systems Forces, reported the attack on Telegram and released video showing the damage.

“At the end of the day, August 21st, 2025, the Unecha oil pumping station was done. Repairs underwent in 48 hours. The enemy was dealt a blow by the Birds of the 14th Separate UAV Regiment,” Brovdi wrote.

The next day, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the pipeline had again stopped pumping oil.

“At night, we received news that the Druzhba oil pipeline on the Russian-Belarusian border was attacked again — for the third time in a short period. Crude oil shipments to Hungary have once more been halted,” he said.

This was the second strike on the Unecha oil pumping station in August, following an earlier attack on August 12th. That strike destroyed two pumping stations, along with a small technical building and equipment nearby.

Unecha is a key hub for transporting Russian oil to the port of Ust-Luga, which handles a large share of the country’s exports, as well as for supplying crude to the Mozyr Oil Refinery in Belarus and pumping to Slovakia and Hungary.

On the night of August 18th, Ukrainian drone units, working with other elements of the Defense Forces, struck the Nikolskoye-1 oil pumping station in Russia’s Tambov region.

That attack also briefly halted pipeline operations before they resumed. However, according to Szijjártó, the latest strike is “much more serious than the previous ones, because during the attack the Ukrainians used missiles in addition to drones.”