Ukrainian drones strike Russia's largest oil refinery in Omsk, sparking major fire

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Ukrainian drones on Monday attacked Russia’s Omsk oil refinery, the country’s largest, damaging an essential part of refinery, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.

Videos of a large fire and clouds of smoke billowing from the plant were shared by Ukrainian and Russian social media channels. It was unclear how much damage the refinery had sustained.

The Gazprom-owned oil refinery, located in Siberia, more than 2,500 kilometers away from the front line, processes more than 22 million tons of oil per year — around 10 percent of the total oil refined in Russia.

“According to preliminary information, the ELOU-AVT-11 primary oil processing unit with a design capacity of 8.4 million tons of oil per year was hit,” the general staff statement says, referring to partial capacity damage at the refinery. The hit was confirmed by the Ukrainian open-source intelligence project Dnipro. The strike was the farthest Ukrainian drones have penetrated into Russian territory since the war began.

Omsk region Governor Vitaly Khotsenko said on the Russian messaging ​app MAX that Ukraine had attacked the refinery ​and that Russian air defenses had destroyed most of the drones involved in the strike, according to Reuters . He added that there were no casualties and emergency services were at the ​scene.

The attack was allegedly carried out by new FP-1 drones, built by Ukrainian firm Fire Point, which are capable of reaching distances of up to 2,700 kilometers. Fire Point’s CEO, Denys Shtilierman, posted a video of the attack on X, saying: “Omsk Refinery meets the new FP1.”

Since the spring, the Ukrainian military has intensified strikes on oil refineries producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel in Russia. As a result, fuel shortages are being reported in many regions of the country.