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Ukraine early on Tuesday hit with drones an oil refinery near Nizhny Novgorod in western Russia, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said, announcing a second hit at a Russian oil refinery in less than a week.
Units of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, in cooperation with other components of the defense forces, struck on the night of January 29 Lukoil’s Norsi refinery in Kstovo, in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s sixth-largest city.
A large fire was seen at the facility after the attack, said Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces in a Facebook post which contained a photo of a refinery on fire.
The refinery is involved in providing support to the Russian army, Ukraine said, adding that “Combat work on strategic facilities involved in providing support for the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine will continue.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its systems intercepted and destroyed a total of 104 Ukrainian drones overnight, but did not comment or confirm a hit on Lukoil’s Norsi refinery.
The strike at the Norsi facility is the second in less than a week, after Ukraine hit at the end of last week a major Russian oil refinery in Ryazan, causing significant damage and disrupting operations.
The overnight attack set a 20,000-ton oil storage tank ablaze and damaged vital infrastructure, including a hydrotreater and railway loading rack. This refinery, which processes 262,000 barrels per day (bpd)—nearly 5% of Russia’s refining capacity—ground to a halt, underscoring the vulnerabilities of Russia’s energy sector amidst the ongoing conflict.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and other energy infrastructure have become a fixture, with drones the weapon of choice for conducting the strikes.
As Ukraine continues to target refineries in Russia, some of these attacks have affected fuel product supply from Russian refineries and reduced crude processing rates.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
The post Ukraine Drones Hit Second Russian Oil Refinery in Less Than a Week appeared first on Energy News Beat.
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