Ukrainian drone hits oil depot in Russia's Smolensk region: authorities

An overnight drone attack set fire to oil storage facilities in western Russia's Yartsevo district near the border with Belarus, according to local authorities and Russia's defense ministry.

In a statement on Telegram Dec. 31, Smolensk regional governor Vasily Anokhin said that a Ukrainian attack had targeted an oil depot in Yartsevo, triggering a fire at the site after a drone was shot down by Russian air defenses.

"The wreckage of one of the unmanned aerial vehicles fell on the territory of the oil depot. As a result, there was a fuel spill and a fire of fuels and lubricants began," said Anokhin.

In a later statement around midday local time, he said the situation "is under control" after emergency services were deployed at the scene in the early hours of the morning.

According to a statement from Russia's ministry of defense, 10 Ukrainian drones were downed over the Smolensk region overnight. Anhokhin wrote that neighboring regions including Bryansk, Kursk and the Krasnodar territory were also hit, calling the incident part of a "massive attack" on Russian territory.

While previous Ukrainian drone attacks have proven a strike range of up to 1,400 km, oil storage reserves close to the border have remained in a precarious position as attacks have focused on hitting potential fuel supplies for Russia's military.

In the most recent attacks, an oil depot in the Russian village of Stalnoy Kon, Oryol, which sits along the country's Transneft-operated diesel pipeline, was struck repeatedly Dec. 14 and Dec. 22, while a Dec. 11 incident targeted a depot in Byransk, also situated along the pipeline.

A Dec. 18 attack on the 112,000 b/d Novoshakhtinsky refinery has kept authorities alert for larger-scale incidents targeting Russian fuel production capacity, meanwhile, after a lull in drone strikes on some of the country's largest scale facilities that reached their height around May.

Oct-Dec drone attacks target refineries and oil depots

Source: local reports, S&P Global Commodity Insights