Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out in the early hours of this Monday a drone attack on the oil refinery located in the city of Kirishi, the second largest in Russia, located in the Saint Petersburg region. After the impact, a fire was declared at the facilities.
The regional governor, Alexander Drozdenko, said in a statement that the offensive focused on the industrial area of Kirishi and affirmed that Russian defenses managed to bring down around 80 drones during the operation.
The plant, located about 100 kilometers southeast of Saint Petersburg, was engulfed in flames, which forced the activation of air defense systems and the evacuation of several families from their homes as a precautionary measure.
The Kirishi facilities, controlled by the Russian company Surgutneftegaz, are the country’s second-largest oil refinery and the only one of this type in northwestern Russia. It entered service in 1966 and has a design capacity of between 20 and 21 million tons of crude oil per year. The plant produces gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene, fuel oil, bitumen, liquefied gas, and other petrochemical products.
In addition, the refinery is an essential fuel supplier for the city of Saint Petersburg and aviation kerosene for Púlkovo airport. Last year, the United States included Surgutneftegaz and several related entities, including the Kirishi refinery, in a package of sanctions.
Russian authorities have reported that throughout the night, around 430 Ukrainian drones were brought down in different points in their airspace.
For its part, Kiev puts the accumulated losses by the Russian Army at 1.6 million since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, already more than four years ago. According to data released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, since the beginning of the war, more than 600,000 drones and 52,000 Russian artillery systems have been destroyed.