Ukraine strikes Russia's Tuapse oil refinery again, triggering fire and evacuations

A fire broke out at Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea coast after a new drone strike or drone debris impact on April 28, prompting evacuations near the facility and fresh claims of responsibility from Ukraine.

Russian regional officials in Krasnodar said the blaze began after drone debris fell on the refinery. Local authorities ordered people living on nearby streets to leave the area because of the fire risk. Reuters and other reporting said the site had already been hit in earlier attacks this month.

Ukrainian military officials, meanwhile, said their forces struck the Tuapse refinery again and described it as the third hit on the facility in two weeks. The conflicting accounts could not be independently verified in the material reviewed.

The Tuapse refinery is a key Russian oil-processing site on the Black Sea. Reuters reported that operations there had already been halted after earlier drone attacks on April 16 and April 20, and that a fire from those earlier strikes had burned for days and affected air quality in the area.

Ukrinform reported on April 27 that Ukraine’s General Staff said 24 storage tanks were destroyed and four more damaged in the April 20 strike. That made the refinery one of the most heavily damaged Russian energy targets in the recent campaign.

The latest strike adds to pressure on Russian fuel infrastructure and underscores Ukraine’s continuing campaign against oil and energy facilities inside Russia. The immediate question is how much further damage the Tuapse site sustained and whether operations there will be disrupted again.