Ukraine strikes Omsk refinery a second time, as fuel queues grow in city

Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SSO) said its "Deep Strike" units struck Russia's Omsk oil refinery for a second time on Thursday, with drones travelling nearly 3,000 kilometres to reach the target, the unit said in a Telegram report cited by Kyiv Post. The operation was carried out together with the "Black Spark" insurgent group operating inside Russia, the SSO said.

Ukraine's General Staff separately confirmed a strike on the refinery, saying it was the last of Russia's 11 largest gasoline producers to be targeted by Ukrainian forces and that the plant supplies fuel to the Russian military. Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point said the attack used its upgraded long-range FP-1 drones, recording a hit followed by a fire.

Omsk Oblast governor Vitaly Khotsenko initially said Russian air defences had shot down the drones over the region, but later acknowledged that several drones had reached the city's northern industrial zone, without naming the refinery as the target, Kyiv Post reported. Videos and images shared by local residents and Ukrainian monitoring channels showed explosions, fire and black smoke rising from the refinery area, Astra and the Kyiv Independent reported.

Astra reported growing queues at petrol stations in Omsk after the strike. The outlet also said other industry data suggest Russia's Kirishi and Achinsk refineries may have higher processing capacities than Omsk, despite Ukraine's military describing the plant as Russia's largest by refining capacity.

The Omsk refinery, owned by Gazprom Neft, processes more than 21 million tonnes of crude oil a year, employs more than 3,300 people and accounts for about a tenth of Russia's total oil processing, according to the company's website, Kyiv Post reported. A 2025 modernisation project raised its processing depth to 100%, and all its fuel meets the Euro-5 standard, the outlet said.

Ukrainian forces first struck the refinery on 6 July, damaging the ELOU-AVT-11 primary processing unit and forcing it offline for repairs, Kyiv Post reported. Bloomberg reported in early October that repeated strikes on Omsk and other Russian refineries had driven the country's oil processing to its lowest level in more than two decades.

The same day, Ukrainian forces also struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat refinery in Russia's Bashkortostan region, starting a large fire there, the General Staff confirmed, according to the Kyiv Independent.