Ukraine's special forces cripple Russia's Ilsky oil refinery in surprise strike: Details

"In the night of September 7, the Special Operations Forces, in cooperation with the resistance cell Chernyaya iskra (Black Spark) in Russia's Krasnodar region, carried out a special operation at the Ilsky oil refinery named after A. A. Shamar," the statement read.

Around 2:00 AM local time, the SSO and Russian partisans successfully destroyed the main facility that ensures the refinery's operation — the ELOU-AT-6 primary oil processing unit.

"ELOU-AT-6 is a primary oil processing complex with a capacity of six million tons of crude oil per year. The unit dehydrates and desalts crude oil and then distills it into fractions to produce various petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel fuel," the SSO explained.

As a result, the Russian oil refinery is now completely inoperative. It will remain nonfunctional until the unit is repaired.

Russia, the "gas station country," left without fuel

Earlier, on the night of September 7, Ukraine's Defense Forces struck targets inside Russia, hitting part of the Stalnoy kon (Steel Horse) oil pipeline and the Ilsky oil refinery.

On September 6, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces released a video report summarizing strikes on Russian oil refineries in August, noting that operators of the 14th UAV Regiment carried out a total of 11 deep-strike operations.

Notably, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Robert "Madyar" Brovdi, also reported that on the night of September 5, the forces attacked fuel infrastructure targets in Russia and occupied territories.

According to him, the Ryazan oil refinery and a fuel depot in Luhansk were hit. Later, the General Staff of Ukraine confirmed the strike on the Ryazan refinery.