A fire broke out at the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region after Ukrainian drones hit it during the night of Sept. 26, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
The Unmanned Systems Forces took credit for the operation. They said the 1st Separate Center and the 414th Unmanned Systems Brigade, better known as “Madyar’s Birds,” carried it out together with other units. The drones covered roughly 400 kilometers (250 miles) from their launch point to reach the plant.
Fire Point, the Ukrainian company behind the FP-1 drone, said the attack knocked the refinery out of operation. By its account, three primary oil-processing units and a tank farm were damaged.
What Russian officials said
Veniamin Kondratiev, the governor of Krasnodar Krai, confirmed that drones had gone after the Seversky district, where the refinery stands. He reported deaths and one person seriously injured. Debris also damaged a residential building, he said, and fires started at two enterprises in the district. He did not name them.
The independent Russian outlet ASTRA said footage from eyewitnesses showed one of those fires was at Ilsky. Russian and Ukrainian monitoring channels both reported explosions near the site while drones kept flying through the night.
A repeat target
Ilsky is among the biggest oil-processing plants in southern Russia, turning out nearly 6.6 million tons of fuel a year. It sits about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
It has been hit again and again. ASTRA counted at least 16 strikes by June. The General Staff confirmed an attack on June 2 that set off a major fire, then reported another hit on Aug. 8, followed by a blaze on the refinery grounds.
Krasnodar Krai, a strategic region on Russia’s Black Sea coast, has come under heavier drone attack as Kyiv extends its range deep into Russian territory. The wider campaign against refineries and other energy sites aims to starve Russian forces of fuel and cut into the revenue that pays for Moscow’s war.
