Russia says burning oil spill at refinery struck by Ukrainian drones has been contained

Russia has contained the spill of burning oil that spread through Tuapse after Ukrainian drone strikes on an oil refinery there, Emergency Situations Ministry head Alexander Kurenkov said at an operational headquarters meeting in the city.

“The main threat has been neutralized — the flow of burning oil has been stopped,” the operational headquarters said in a statement. Kurenkov said the top priorities were extinguishing the open fire at the refinery and disposing of contaminated soil along the coast.

Kurenkov called the situation in Tuapse “difficult but under control” and said boom barriers would be deployed to the city in the near future to guard against discharges into the sea.

“As for collecting petroleum products that may have entered the water from the Tuapse River, a combined group of 40 divers — including personnel from the Emergency Situations Ministry, Kuban-SPAS, and other units — will arrive tomorrow to survey the seabed,” he said.

In the early hours of April 28, Ukrainian drones struck oil infrastructure in Tuapse for the third time in two weeks. The first two attacks, on April 16 and April 20, caused fires and serious environmental damage. The April 28 strike again set the refinery ablaze, and a column of smoke hung over the city. During the fire, boiling oil from one of the storage tanks spilled into the street.

After the first fire, an oil slick covering roughly 10,000 square meters was discovered in the Black Sea. The second left the city coated in what residents described as “oil rain.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on Tuapse only after the third strike. “Here is the latest example — strikes on energy facilities in Tuapse that could potentially cause serious environmental damage. True, the governor just reported that there appear to be no serious threats, and people on the ground are managing the challenges they face,” he said.