Unknown drones strike Russia: hits reported at Afipsky and Novokuibyshevsky oil refineries
Illustrative photo: fire being extinguished in Russia (Getty Images)
Overnight on August 28, fires broke out at two of Russia’s largest oil refineries, the Afipsky and Novokuibyshevsky plants, triggering massive blazes at these strategic facilities, according to Russian channels.
According to preliminary reports, Russia was attacked by unidentified drones, which allegedly sparked fires at two of the country’s largest oil refineries. Footage of the incidents has been circulating on social media.
In the Samara region, the Novokuibyshevsky oil refinery was hit, where a large-scale fire is raging.
This refinery belongs to the Russian state company Rosneft and is one of the largest in the country, with an annual processing capacity of 8.3 million tons of oil. It also produces fuel for military aviation, including for Tu-22M3 supersonic aircraft.
On March 10, 2025, the facility was hit in one of the largest attacks to date, which temporarily halted its operations. At that time, the main primary oil refining unit, CDU-11, with a capacity of 18,900 tons per day, was damaged. This led to the suspension of primary refining at the plant as of August 2, 2025.
Meanwhile, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the Afipsky oil refinery was also attacked overnight on August 28.
Drone attacks on Russian oil refineries
On the night of August 21, Ukrainian drones struck the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the Rostov region, sparking a massive fire at the facility. By August 23, it became known that the blaze had spread to a new storage tank.
Then, on the night of August 24, drones targeted the Syzran oil refinery in the Samara region.
