Ukrainian drones struck the Rosneft oil complex in the Russian Black Sea city of Tuapse, Krasnodar Krai, overnight on 1 May, lighting up another fire on a complex that has not fully stopped burning after the previous drone assaults, monitoring channels and local authorities reported. It is the fourth Ukrainian drone strike on the Tuapse complex in 16 days. The previous three strikes destroyed or damaged most of the refinery's tank farm and a significant portion of its infrastructure.
What happened overnight on 1 May
Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+ reported the new attack on Tuapse starting at 00:55 on 1 May, sharing photos and video. By 10:12, the channel posted that "the fire there appears to have intensified, and more than one tank is burning." A later update said: "Tuapse continues to flare up."
Krasnodar Krai's operational headquarters confirmed the drone attack and claimed the fire broke out at the oil export terminal — a separate section of the same Rosneft complex.
"In Tuapse, as a result of a UAV attack by the Kyiv regime, a fire broke out on the territory of the maritime terminal. There are no casualties, special and emergency services are working at the scene," the operational headquarters claimed.
It said 128 personnel and 41 pieces of equipment, including those from Russia's emergencies ministry, were deployed to put out the fire.
A later update from Krasnodar Krai's operational headquarters raised the total response to 790 personnel and 48 vehicles and said 13,333 cubic meters of fuel oil, contaminated soil, and water-fuel mixture had been collected at three sites in Tuapse during cleanup of the earlier strikes. The head of the Tuapse municipality, Sergei Boiko, said 85 people evacuated from homes near the refinery during the previous fires were still living in city hotels.
Footage from the ground published yesterday showed the devastation at the refinery prior to last night's attack.
A Rosneft complex Ukraine has been dismantling for two weeks
The Tuapse refinery is one of Rosneft's most technologically advanced, capable of processing up to 12 million tonnes of oil a year at a refining depth of about 98% — one of Russia's highest. The complex produces Euro-5 diesel, fuel oil, vacuum gas oil, and aviation fuel. Total tank capacity for crude and refined products exceeds 1.5 million cubic meters.
