Drones hit oil refinery in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Oblast for second time in three days: fire raging – photos

UAVs have attacked the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery in the city of Kstovo in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, with a fire raging at the facility.

Source: Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Governor Gleb Nikitin; Russian Telegram channel ASTRA; Russian Ministry of Defence

Quote from Nikitin: "During the night and morning, 30 UAVs were shot down over Nizhny Novgorod Oblast... Debris fall caused damage followed by fire at two industrial facilities in Kstovo district."

Details: The official did not specify what is burning, noting only that "localisation of the fire and efforts to deal with the aftermath of the incident are under way". Schools in the district switched to remote learning.

ASTRA, citing local residents, reported explosions and a fire in the city of Kstovo.

It is noted that the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery came under attack.

Photos and videos published by the channel show columns of smoke in the sky and open burning at the plant.

ASTRA established that a facility in the south-western part of the refinery was struck – likely an ELOU-AVT unit.

ELOU-AVT is a basic combined primary oil processing unit at oil refineries; its main purpose is to prepare crude oil and separate it into base fractions (straight-run petrol, kerosene, diesel fuel, vacuum gasoil, and residual fuel oil).

The Kstovo refinery has been attacked by drones on multiple previous occasions, most recently on 18 May.

Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez is one of Russia's leading oil refineries. It is important for supplying the Moscow region. Its installed primary oil processing capacity is approximately 17 million tonnes per year. The facility produces over 50 types of products: automotive, aviation and diesel fuels, as well as petroleum bitumens, paraffins and others.

Russia's Ministry of Defence claimed that from the evening of 19 May, air defence shot down 273 Ukrainian UAVs over the territories of Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Volgograd, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Oryol, Rostov, Smolensk, Tver, Tula and Moscow oblasts, as well as Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, the Republic of Tatarstan, temporarily occupied Crimea and the waters of the Azov and Black seas.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!