Ukraine Says It Hit Rosneft’s Refinery in Russia’s Saratov

Images of the Saratov refinery by NASA's FIRMS show fresh heat anomalies on Aug. 2. Source: Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — Ukrainian forces struck Rosneft PJSC’s refinery in Russia’s Saratov overnight as it continues to target its foe’s fuel producing industry on a near-daily basis. 

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Separately, Moscow claimed that a Ukrainian drone struck the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces since 2022, near one of the facility’s power units. Ukraine hasn’t commented. 

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The Saratov attack resulted in a fire at the refinery, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a Telegram statement. Ukraine’s forces also struck Engels airfield in the Saratov region, about 730 kilometers (450 miles) southeast of Moscow and over 1,000 km east of Kyiv, according to the statement. 

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The Engels air base is a critical operating hub for Russian warplanes including the Tu-95 long-range strategic bomber, which has been used to launch cruise missile strikes against Ukraine, the General Staff said. 

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Regional authorities said there was damage to civilian infrastructure in Saratov and Engels following the attack, which also killed two people. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s forces also hit an oil depot in Russia’s Kaluga region and on a drone storage facility in the Bryansk region. 

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Images of the Saratov refinery captured Sunday by NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System show fresh heat anomalies that may indicate active fires. 

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Ukraine’s forces intensified strikes on Russia’s refineries, including facilities far from the nations’ border, in the final days of July after a short lull over the previous couple of weeks. On Friday, Kyiv hit the Volgograd refiner, one of Russia’s largest, while attacks on Saturday targeted Ufa, home to three Bashneft refineries, in Russia’s Bashkortostan republic. 

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Earlier on Sunday there was another massive drone attack on the republic’s industrial facilities that resulted in a fire at an industrial area in Ufa, Radiy Khabirov, head of Bashkortostan, said without providing details.  

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Intensified attacks threaten to disrupt fuel supplies in Russia again, just as many regions across the country were increasing limits for gasoline and diesel sales at filling stations or even lifting them after a period of shortages. Following the attack on the Volgograd refinery, filling stations of Lukoil PJSC and Gazprom PJSC temporarily introduced gasoline rationing in the Volgograd region, according to regional authorities.

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The Saratov refinery, which has a design capacity of processing about 140,000 barrels of crude a day, was previously hit on July 8 and had restored operations after that attack.   

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Rosneft didn’t immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for a comment sent via WhatsApp outside normal business hours.  

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While Ukraine continues so successfully target Russian oil infrastructure, Zelenskyy said Russian enterprises not currently subject to Western sanctions are working to step up production of drones, missiles and guided aerial bombs.