Fire breaks out at Ufa refinery after drone attack damages unit under repair

Bashkortostan Gov. Radiy Khabirov said a drone apparently struck a refinery unit undergoing repairs, damaging pipelines.

Acting Ufa Mayor Rustam Sharipov claimed six drones attacked the city. Four were “shot down,” he said, while another fell in an industrial zone, sparking a fire. Sharipov did not identify the facility targeted in the attack.

Northern Ufa is home to a major oil refining and petrochemical complex that includes three Bashneft facilities with a combined annual capacity of 23.5 million metric tons, The Moscow Times noted.

Ukrainian forces struck the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Ufa, in the Republic of Bashkortostan, on Aug. 5. Preliminary reports indicated that an integrated processing unit and an L-35-11/1000 catalytic reforming unit were hit, sparking a fire, Ukraine’s General Staff reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the refinery was more than 1,300 kilometers from the front line.