Ukrainian forces strike Russian oil refinery in Samara region, command post in Donetsk region

The Ukrainian Armed Forces' General Staff reported the information.

According to the department, the Syzran oil refinery in Russia's Samara region was hit, which is one of the largest in the Rosneft system. The facility produces a wide range of fuels, including aviation kerosene. It participates in supplying the Russian Armed Forces.

"The target was hit, fire and explosions were recorded," the General Staff reported.

A strike was also carried out on the command post of the 132nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 51st Army of the Russian Armed Forces in the city of Yenakieve, in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region. The target was hit.

The results of the strikes are being clarified.

Earlier, the governor of Samara region and the Russian media reported this.

The region’s governor, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, reported that in the morning, air defense forces destroyed 13 enemy drones. A Carpet plan has been implemented across the region, closing the airspace and imposing temporary restrictions on mobile internet. Residents were urged not to film or post on social media any footage of air defense operations, drone debris, or emergency services activities.

Russian outlet Mash, citing eyewitnesses, reported that the attack targeted Syzran, with residents hearing at least ten explosions around 4 a.m. According to locals, the drones flew from the direction of Kuznetsk, with the most active flights recorded in the villages of Kashmir and Uvarovka.

The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that overnight, air defense units allegedly intercepted and destroyed 53 aircraft-type drones.

According to their data, the UAVs were shot down over Kursk (13), Rostov (11), Samara (7), Belgorod (6), Oryol (5), Bryansk (4), Voronezh (4), Saratov (1) regions, the Republic of Kalmykia (1), and over the Azov Sea (1).

Note: the Syzran oil refinery is one of the largest enterprises in Rosneft’s system and a key facility for the southern Volga region. Its design capacity is about 8–8.5 million tons of crude oil per year (160–170 thousand barrels per day), while actual processing in recent years has ranged from 6–7 million tons, depending on logistics and maintenance.

The refinery supplies fuel to Samara, Saratov, and Penza regions, as well as partially to other regions of central Russia. It has access to rail and river routes, allowing shipments both domestically and for export via the Volga and Caspian Sea ports. The plant produces gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene, fuel oil, and bitumen — critical for the region’s agricultural sector and transportation.

The Syzran refinery also has military significance, supplying fuel to airbases and units of Russia’s Central and Southern Military Districts. Its shutdown or serious damage would create a fuel shortage in the region and require rerouting production from other refineries, increasing logistics costs and strain on transport corridors.

This is the third attack on the refinery: previous strikes occurred in 2024 and in February 2025, when the central GDU6 unit was damaged.

• On August 14, Ukrainian forces struck the Olya seaport and a ship loaded with components for Shahed drones in Russia’s Astrakhan region.