Ukrainian drones attacked the Syzran oil refinery, causing a fire at the Russian plant
On the night of 21 May, drones attacked the town of Syzran in the Samara Oblast of the Russian Federation. The regional governor warned residents of a ‘drone threat’ and subsequently announced the closure of airspace and the imposition of a ‘Carpet’ alert.
Following the attack, a fire broke out on the premises of the Syzran Oil Refinery. Thick black smoke rose above the industrial zone. The fire was confirmed by a number of monitoring Telegram channels and by Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council.
JSC “Syzran Oil Refinery” is part of PJSC “Rosneft”. The plant produces petrol, diesel and aviation fuel, fuel oil and bitumen. The refinery processes between 7 and 8.5 million tonnes of crude oil annually.
According to Russian and Ukrainian monitoring sources, this is not the first attack on the facility. In April, the Syzran Oil Refinery was already hit by drones. At that time, processing equipment was damaged, and operations at the AVT-6 primary oil refining unit, which accounts for over 70% of the plant’s capacity, were halted.
Reuters previously reported that over the past two weeks, major oil refineries in central Russia have been forced to halt operations either completely or partially due to strikes by Ukrainian drones. These include facilities in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan and Yaroslavl.
According to the agency’s estimates, the combined capacity of the refineries that have fully or partially ceased operations exceeds 83 million tonnes per year. They accounted for over 30% of motor petrol production and around 25% of diesel fuel production in the Russian Federation.
