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Fire reported at oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai following 'massive' drone attack

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Fire reported at oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai following 'massive' drone attack
Illustrative image: Oil storage tanks are illuminated at night at the RN-Tuapsinsky refinery, operated by Rosneft Oil Co., in Tuapse, Russia, on March 22, 2020. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A large fire reportedly erupted at the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai overnight on Feb. 17 following large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks on the region, Russian Telegram media channels reported.

Videos posted on social media by local residents purportedly show a large blaze at the refinery located in the Seversky district of the region. Residents reported hearing sounds of explosions around 1:30 a.m. local time.

Regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev claimed earlier in the evening that Ukrainian drones carried out a "massive attack" on the region, damaging 12 homes and injuring a woman — although Kondratyev made no mention of the attack on the refinery.

The Kyiv Independent cannot verify claims made by Russian officials.

Emergency crews are currently on-scene. No information was immediately available as to any casualties at the refinery or the extent of the damage.

Ukraine considers Russian oil facilities to be valid military targets, as fossil fuel profits supply Moscow's war machine. The Ukrainian military has launched repeated attacks against Russian refineries with long-range drones.

The purported attack follows just days after Ukraine's military attacked the Afipskiy oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai on Feb. 10. The attack targeted the key facility which processes 6.25 million tons of oil annually.

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Dmytro Basmat

Senior News Editor

Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.

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U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks come after the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing undisclosed sources, that he asked President Volodymyr Zelensky whether Kyiv could strike Moscow or St. Petersburg if provided with long-range U.S. weapons.

"The stolen data includes confidential questionnaires of the company's employees, and most importantly, full technical documentation on the production of drones, which was handed over to the relevant specialists of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," a source in Ukraine's military intelligence told the Kyiv Independent.

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