Ukraine claimed an attack on Russia’s Orsk oil refinery near the border with Kazakhstan, as Kyiv seeks to widen the range of strikes on its foe’s energy infrastructure.
Columns of black smoke rose from the refinery site as a result of the strike, said a person familiar with the matter at the Security Service of Ukraine, asking not to be named discussing sensitive information. Bloomberg could not independently verify the claim.
Drones have attempted to hit an unnamed industrial facility in the Orenburg region, local governor Yevgeny Solntsev said in a Telegram statement, providing no details that could help identify the target. Operations of the facility have not been disrupted, Solntsev said.
Ukraine has been intensifying its strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure as the Kremlin shows no intention to move towards a peace deal. US President Donald Trump, who tried to moderate peace negotiations, recently switched to a more hawkish tone as his attempts have faltered. Ukraine hopes to strengthen its hand at any future negotiations by conducting longer-range strikes, potentially with US missiles like Tomahawk.
The Orsk refinery, owned by ForteInvest JSC, is located in Russia’s Orenburg region, just 5 kilometers from the border with Kazakhstan and nearly 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Moscow. The facility has a design capacity to process 6.6 million tons of crude per year, equivalent to around 130,000 barrels per day. It produces several types of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.
As a result of the repeated Ukrainian attacks on refineries, Russia’s oil-processing rates have decline by at least 7% since strikes since early August. That has in turn exacerbated the nation’s fuel crunch. The government in Moscow responded by imposing a ban on diesel exports for resellers until the end of this year, while a full ban on gasoline sales abroad was extended, also until end-2025.
ForteInvest and the Orsk refinery didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments
Russian military forces overnight conducted the largest aerial strikes on Ukraine’s gas infrastructure since the start of the war, damaging facilities of Naftogaz of Ukraine. In the recent days, Russia also attacked Kyiv and several regions across Ukraine