Ukraine’s Defense Forces Hit Oil Pumping Station of Druzhba Pipeline in Russia’s Tambov Region

On the night of August 18th, units of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, working with other units of the Defense Forces, struck the Nikolskoye-1 oil pumping station in Russia’s Tambov region, the General Staff reported.

“As a result of the strike, a fire broke out at the facility. Oil pumping through the Druzhba main pipeline has been completely halted,” the department said.

The shutdown was also confirmed by Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Facebook.

He condemned the attack, saying it had forced a suspension of oil supplies to Hungary.

“Another attack on our energy security is outrageous and unacceptable,” Szijjártó said. He added that Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin had reported about specialists attempting to restore the transformer station critical to the pipeline’s operation, but no timeline for resuming supplies was available.

The damage was confirmed by NASA’s Firms fire monitoring service, which recorded several fire sites around 2 a.m. local time.

The Nikolskoye-1 station is located near Sestrenka-Kugushevo, about 400 kilometers from the front line. It is a key facility on the 5,500-kilometer Druzhba pipeline, responsible for supplying oil products to Tambov and neighboring regions in central Russia.

The station is owned by the Transneft state-controlled company, which provides oil and petroleum transportation across Russia and abroad. It has an annual capacity of 104.5 million tons of oil and products, and daily throughput of up to 300,000 tons.

In addition to crude oil, Nikolskoye-1 pumps, stores, and distributes aviation and diesel fuel, gasoline, and fuel oil. It also maintains extensive storage and modern transport equipment. According to Russian industry reports, the station undergoes ongoing modernization, with the latest upgrades to its safety valve system completed at the end of July 2025.

Previously, on August 12th, a strike on the Unecha oil pumping station destroyed two other pumping stations of the Druzhba pipeline.