Major Russian oil hub burns as Ukraine launches blitz on 'heart of Putin's petrol network'

Detailed summary

Ukraine has launched one of its most devastating drone attacks on Russia with the Samara station, seen as the operational heart of Russia's oil export network, hit, says military chiefs in Kyiv

A major Russian oil hub has been hit along with a military base as Ukraine fired nearly 1,200 drones in one of its biggest aerial attacks since the war began.

The military said that it had hit the Samara linear production and dispatch station near the village of Prosvet with a massive fire breaking out in several oil storage reservoirs.

Ukrainian say it is a strike at the "operational heart of Russia's oil export network" as the station receives the fuel through pipelines from Tatarstan, Western Siberia and other regions across the country before being blended there to produce Urals oil, which accounts for up to half of Russia's oil exports.

Ukraine's General Staff issued a statement today confirming the attack on Friday along with a strike on the Lipetsk-2 military airbase which hit buildings and ignited oil storage tanks.

“Urals accounts for up to half of all Russian oil exports. Therefore, every damaged tank in Samara strikes directly at the main source of money from which the aggressor pays for missiles, drones, and the war against Ukraine,” the General Staff stated.

These are the latest attacks on military and fuel infrastructure where Ukraine has capitalised on its drone technology to strike within Russia.

Massive fires were reported at Kirishi Oil Refinery in Leningrad region, near St Petersburg, after a strike by Ukraine, this week.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin was 'losing the war' as a huge oil refinery burned after a "massive" drone strike on key infrastructure inside Russia.

The Kamensky missile manufacturing plant in the Rostov region was hit overnight into November 1.

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