Moscow (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Ukraine launched dozens of drones on energy facilities in southern Russia. Russian and Ukrainian officials have confirmed that it triggered fires at a main oil refinery and gas processing plant.
Russian officials said that a Ukrainian drone disrupted flights from the Volga to the Caucasus Mountains. Russia’s defence ministry reported that its air defence intercepted and eliminated 70 Ukrainian drones.
“The air defence forces of the defence ministry repelled a massive attack by aircraft-type drones on the territory of the Volgograd region,”
Volgograd Governor Andrei Bocharov stated. He said drone debris caused several fires at an oil refinery.
Russian sources also revealed that a series of explosions were reported in the area around a refinery handled by Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, in Volgograd.
Baza and other Russian Telegram channels expressed Ukraine struck a gas processing plant near Astrakhan.
“Ukrainian armed forces attempted a drone attack on objects located in the region, including fuel and energy facilities,”
Babushkin stated on Telegram.
“There were no casualties.”
How did the previous Ukraine drone attack significantly damage Russian energy infrastructure?
Earlier, On January 29, 2025, the critical Russian energy infrastructure, including the oil and power facilities, became the targets of similar drone attacks as well. As many as 100 drones were used in the operation, and according to reports, Russian air defence systems intercepted most of them.
The attacks targeted several locations across western Russia, where efforts to strike a nuclear power facility in Smolensk were apparently neutralized without causing any damage. The attacks from the drone had set fire to a petrochemical plant that Sibur owns in Kstovo, a city located some 800 kilometres from Ukraine. No one at the plant was injured, but the incident proved that the Ukrainian attacks were vulnerabilities of the energy infrastructure in Russia.
