Special Operations Forces Strike Oil Depot in Russia’s Rostov Region, Damaging Tanker

Strike drones of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces hit a Russian oil depot in Rostov Oblast during the night of December 17, damaging a fuel tanker.

The Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported the attack.

The target was the Nikolaevskaya oil depot, used to supply fuel to Russian occupying forces in temporarily occupied Crimea.

According to preliminary information from the Ukrainian military, the strike damaged a storage tank at the facility and the Kapitan Gibert oil tanker.

The Special Operations Forces said the oil depot is used to store and transport petroleum products to Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories, supporting the logistics of Russian military units in Crimea and neighboring occupied areas.

The extent of the damage to the Russian vessel and whether it can continue operating remains unknown.

The Special Operations Forces (SOF) also reported that their strike drones, together with the Unmanned Systems Forces and the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, struck a Russian oil refinery overnight located in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai.

Such asymmetric strikes are carried out to impair the enemy’s ability to wage war against Ukraine.

Last week, the Special Operations Forces reported that, in cooperation with the Russian resistance movement Chernaya Iskra (Black Spark), they struck two Russian vessels in the Caspian Sea that were transporting weapons.

The successful operation took place near the coast of the Republic of Kalmykia.

Representatives of the insurgent movement provided detailed information on the routes and cargoes of the struck vessels.

The ships in question are Kompozitor Rakhmaninov and Askar-Sarydzha, which Russia uses for military purposes and are under U.S. sanctions for their involvement in transporting military cargo between Iran and Russia.