The key facts

  • The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said drones struck an oil transport station in Samara Oblast, causing a fire in storage tanks
  • The station blends the export-grade Urals crude from feedstock supplied from Tatarstan and Western Siberia
  • On November 13 the governor reported four people killed in a strike on an industrial enterprise, without specifying which one

Strike on oil transport infrastructure

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that drones attacked an oil transport facility in Samara Oblast. According to the military, the strike caused a fire in several oil storage tanks.

Why the station is considered important

According to the General Staff's statement, the attacked station is one of the important facilities of the Russian oil industry: feedstock from Tatarstan, Western Siberia and other oil-producing regions arrives there via trunk pipelines, and at the station itself crude of various grades is blended to form one of Russia's main export grades — Urals. The Ukrainian military called the facility important oil industry infrastructure that 'finances the war'.

Casualties and the context of the strike series

On November 13, the governor of Samara Oblast, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, reported that four people were killed as a result of a strike on an industrial enterprise, but did not specify which enterprise was hit. Earlier, on October 30, Ukraine attacked the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in the same region; after that, strikes on Russian refineries intensified again. This week, the General Staff of Ukraine reported that in recent days five large oil refineries had been attacked — in Omsk, Leningrad, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl oblasts.