Ukrainian drone attacks hit Volgograd and Samara, setting a refinery and a major oil tank farm on fire
Ukrainian drones struck Volgograd and Samara overnight on October 2. Andrey Bocharov, governor of the Volgograd region, said there had been a “massive drone attack on industrial infrastructure” but did not specify which facilities had been targeted. He said a residential building caught fire and one person was injured.
Photos and videos posted by eyewitnesses showed a large fire in the area of the Volgograd oil refinery and the Kaustik chemical plant, Astra reported. Ukrainian drones have attacked the refinery several times before. Astra also reported that city residents said no drone alert had been issued in Volgograd.
An oil pipeline operations and dispatch facility in Samara caught fire, according to Astra. The Samara station is Europe’s largest oil storage tank complex and part of Transneft’s network. Four pipelines carry oil to it from Western Siberia, Tatarstan, the Orenburg region, and Kazakhstan.
City and regional authorities issued no official reports of the fire in Samara. However, missile and drone alerts were issued in the city, aboveground public transit stopped running, and the metro was used as a shelter, Samara Mayor Ivan Noskov said.
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