On the night of April 28, Ukrainian drones struck the Tuapse oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation for the third time in the last two weeks. They have not yet managed to cope with the consequences of previous attacks; now a large-scale fire has flared up again. The GORDON publication has collected everything that is known about the situation in Tuapse.
The Tuapse Refinery is one of the ten largest in Russia and can process about 12 million tons of petroleum products per year. Ukraine attacked oil refining and storage facilities in Tuapse on April 16 and 20. After this, apocalyptic footage of a large-scale fire and smoke over the city was widely circulated on the Internet, with local residents complaining about “oil rains” and “ecological disaster.” According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 24 tanks were destroyed and four more were damaged.
On April 24, the authorities of the Krasnodar region claimed that they had completely extinguished the fire on the territory of the sea terminal.
On April 28, Tuapse was again attacked by drones, and a powerful fire broke out at the refinery. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed that the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian military. If during previous attacks the tank farm came under attack, this time the refinery itself was hit, OSINT analysts at CyberBoroshno believe.
The city was engulfed in thick smoke, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. It can be seen on NASA satellite images, Radio Liberty notes.
Burning oil spilled down one of the streets. As reported by the local Ministry of Emergency Situations, oil products boiled and erupted in one tank, fuel spilled onto the road, cars were damaged, Dozhd writes.
In the morning, the authorities began evacuating residents of the streets near the terminal “for safety.” There are no clear statements from Russian officials regarding the attack and the large-scale environmental disaster in Tuapse, the Bereg publication draws attention. The cause of the fire was officially named as “falling drone debris.”
By evening, a regional-level emergency regime was introduced in the Tuapse Municipal District.
Now 252 people and 62 pieces of equipment are fighting the fire. Rescuers from the Republic of Adygea were additionally sent to the region.
The head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, also arrived in the region. The authorities reported that “personally on instructions” from the illegitimate Russian President Vladimir Putin, he would supervise the fire extinguishing.
The city is preparing a group of divers to inspect the water area for an oil spill.
Due to the suspension of pumps at the burning oil refinery, part of Tuapse was left without water; containers with it are being installed in the city.
“Bereg” writes that security forces may be detained for filming the situation in the city. Thus, a journalist from the independent environmental publication Kedr was detained for five hours because she was photographing a fire. “They talked politely, but were interested in my work. As I understand, now all over Tuapse they are looking for people who post footage of the fire on social networks,” Troyanova told reporters.
But, of course, such shootings still spread on social networks.
In the evening, Putin commented for the first time in these weeks on the fire in Tuapse after the UAV attacks. In his opinion, “there are no serious threats, people are coping on the spot.”
