Early Monday, Ukraine succeeded in its first successful drone attack on a major Russian refinery since mid-May. Dozens of drones were launched from Ukraine with the objective of crippling Russia’s energy infrastructure. 

Bloomberg reports Rosneft PJSC’s major Tuapse refinery in southern Russia was damaged in a drone attack overnight, which sparked a fire, Russian officials said. 

“Infrastructure of the oil refinery in Tuapse was damaged as a result of falling drone debris,” Russian authorities wrote in a Telegram statement, adding the fire has since been contained.

Some of the clearest video so far of this conflict shows one of the Ukrainian drones striking the Tuapse refinery. 

Ukrainian drones striking the Russian oil refinery in Tuapse in the Krasnodar region 2-3 hours ago

The oil refinery is on firepic.twitter.com/GbV0Tk00Qh

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 22, 2024

In a separate Telegram statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said 75 Ukrainian drones were intercepted. At least eight of those drones were shot down near the refinery. 

Ukraine has spent much of this year focusing on launching attacks on Russia’s energy complex (an attempt to paralyze Moscow’s war financing). The Tuapse refinery is Russia’s largest on the Black Sea, with an annual refining capacity of 12 million metric tons (or averaging 240,000 barrels per day). It supplies naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gas oil, and high-sulfur diesel to mainly China, Turkey, Malaysia, and Singapore. 

“This is the first successful Ukrainian attack on a major Russian refinery since mid-May, and it comes just as Russia’s oil-processing industry is on track to raise its runs to a six-month high to meet growing domestic fuel demand,” Bloomberg noted. The last major attack on Tuapse was in mid-May. We penned a note covering the incident titled “Desperate Ukraine Launches Massive Kamikaze Drone Attack Against Russian Black Sea Coast, Sparking Fire At Major Refinery.” 

Despite Ukraine’s targeting of Russian energy infrastructure to slow crude product exports, energy analysts are still forecasting growth for Russia’s oil-processing volumes through the end of August.