A Ukrainian drone strike has hit one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, killing 12 Russians in one of Kyiv‘s most deadly single attacks of the more than four-year war.
A further 39 were wounded in the strike on Nizhnekamsk in Russia‘s Tatarstan region, Radmir Belyayev, the city’s mayor, announced today.
The region’s oil refinery, understood to be one of Russia’s most technologically advanced, was hit in the long-range attack, according to state media.
Long-distance drones travelled almost 800 miles to strike the giant facility.
Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The barrage has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into the country’s refining capacity, and unsettled the Russian public.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says it is a campaign to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his more than four-year-old invasion.
Nizhnekamsk is roughly 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.
The city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant.
Tatneft’s TANECO refinery, which was previously hit by Ukraine in early June, processed 17 million tons of crude oil in 2024, producing 2.7 million tons of gasoline and 8.5 million tons of diesel fuel.
Smoke is seen rising after a Ukrainian strike on a Nizhnekamsk oil refinery in the Russian republic of Tatarstan
Nizhnekamsk is home to two oil refineries and a petrochemical plant, responsible for producing millions of tons of gasoline and diesel fuel
A warehouse in occupied Makiivka, the outskirts of Donetsk, is on fire after a Ukrainian strike
Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the countries’ border.
‘We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home – in Russia,’ Zelensky said late Sunday on social media.
‘The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.’
Tatarstan head Rustam Minnikhanov has declared a period of mourning after the Ukrainian attack, Mr Belyayev said.
He added: ‘This morning, the republic was subjected to another brutal attack by enemy drones,’ said Radmir Belyayev, Nizhnekamsk city’s mayor.
‘A massive attack is ongoing in the city of Nizhnekamsk.’
Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Russian oil refineries in recent months in a campaign which has caused fuel shortages in many parts of Russia, though authorities say that most of those initial problems have since been resolved.
Meanwhile, parts of the city of Simferopol in Crimea were temporarily left without power amid a reported drone attack.
It came as Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on land access routes to occupied Crimea.
Extraordinary images showed the bombardment on the ‘highways of hell’ linking the Black Sea peninsula to Russia as oil tanker trucks were bombed.
In another Ukrainian strike, there were claims that Russian forces stationed around a former Epicentr store in the occupied city of Makiivka, Donetsk region, were ‘reduced to ashes’.
Oil tanker trucks were bombed on Putin’s key land route to occupied Crimea
Vehicles burn on Putin’s ‘highways of hell’ linking the Black Sea peninsula to Russia
Burnt-out cars stay in the courtyard of a multi-storey apartment block after a Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine
A Russian missile hit a four-storey residential building in central Odessa, Ukraine on Saturday night
Smoke was seen rising from the scene, but there was no immediate confirmation of casualties.
It comes after Russian attacks on Ukraine were accelerated over the weekend.
More than 200 missiles and drones rained down on Ukraine, in a blitz on Saturday night.
The coastal town of Odesa bore the brunt, with a dozen injured and the city’s largest sports arena, the Chornomorets Stadium, damaged.
Missiles also struck a high-rise apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to reports.
Footage showed smoke rising from the 10-storey building as officials said three people had died and 37 were wounded in the eastern city.
The World Health Organization’s European office said on Monday that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine had been struck twice in less than 24 hours.
The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement.
No casualties were reported.
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