AJ
Following several nights of multiple Ukrainian drones heading north towards Moscow, last night changed tact and went south, with almost 100 drones taken down over the Black Sea, the Crimean peninsula and around the region of Krasnodar Krai.
Russia weren’t successfully able to shoot down or suppress all the drones, with eyewitnesses reporting at least five hits at the Tuapse oil terminal, and the UAF confirmed that the attack inflicted fire damage on the “RN-Tuapsinsky Refinery” in the Krasnodar Region.
Initial data showed damage to the oil loading infrastructure of the Russian federal sea commercial port located on the Black Sea coast in Tuapse Bay, which is one of the largest in Russia.
Footage taken from eyewitnesses showed the outbreak of at least fires, according to analysis from multiple OSINT sources, with two of them located on the deep-water berth complex of LLC “RN-Sea Terminal Tuapse”, as well as another oil loading berth near the Southern Mole.
There was also another outbreak that was recorded at the dry cargo bulk pier in the north-western part of the bay, but there was no reliable confirmation that any damage had been caused, the UAF added.
This port houses Rosneft’s refinery and the Tuapse oil terminal, which supplies oil exports to several countries, including China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Turkey, according to a report by Reuters, and it was unknown whether the terminal was still operational after the fire.
Locals often call the facility “the oil pier of the Tuapse Refinery” because it directly connects to the Tuapse oil refinery and serves its export operations, which was intended for loading dark and light petroleum products onto tankers.
During the attack there were two foreign civilian vessels reportedly damaged as a result of the attack, but there were no casualties among crew members and all fires had been extinguished, a later report had said.
Crimean Wind later reported that a Liberian tanker had been seen near the oil terminal, noting it to be the CHAI vessel that was sailing under the Liberian flag and has been in the port since October 28, periodically turning its transponder on and off when moving within the water area.
During the night, the tanker was allegedly moored at the Rosneft oil terminal, which suffered a successful strike.
According to data from Crimean Wind, there is an oil spill near the terminal in Tuapse, citing satellite imaging data, noting that the spill had already reached around three km in length and one km in width as it continues to grow.
Krasnodar’s operational headquarters also reported finding drone debris in Gelendzhik, Anapa, and give other settlements of the Tuapsinsky municipal district, but there weren’t any casualties reported in any of the cases as specialist services worked at all sites to make them secure.
Drone debris reportedly damaged an apartment building in the Sosnovy settlement of the Tuapsinsky district, according to reports form the Krasnodar Krai Operational Headquarters, adding that the drone had been shot down but the debris hit the third floor of the building, damaging windows, but there were no casualties as a result.
