A fire broke out at the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim refinery in the Russian city of Ufa following a drone attack, according to local authorities and open-source analysts.
Two columns of black smoke were seen rising above the facility, based on images circulated by witnesses and analysed by OSINT outlet ASTRA. Residents reported hearing explosions and observing drones flying over the area, while monitoring channels had earlier warned of a potential unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) threat in the Bashkortostan region.
The head of the republic, Radiy Khabirov, said air defences had repelled the attack and that smoke in the industrial zone was caused by debris from a downed drone.
“We repelled another UAV attack on Ufa. Due to falling debris from a downed drone, smoke occurred in the industrial zone. All services are on site and are promptly dealing with the consequences. There are no fatalities or injuries,” Khabirov said.
There were no reported casualties, and emergency services were working at the scene to contain the aftermath, he added.
The Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim refinery is located in Ufa’s northern industrial zone and is part of Bashneft, which in turn is owned by Rosneft. The facility has a refining capacity of up to 8.2 million tonnes of crude oil per year and produces motor fuels, petroleum coke, liquefied gases, sulphur and aromatic hydrocarbons.
Bashneft operates three major refineries in close proximity within the same industrial zone — Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim, Bashneft-Novoil and Bashneft-UNPZ — forming the Ufa refining complex, one of the largest in Russia with a combined processing capacity of around 23.5 million tonnes annually.
The incident follows a previous drone strike targeting oil refineries in Ufa, including Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim, on June 25.
By Tamilla Hasanova
