Drones attacked one of Russia's largest refineries - Zelensky confirmed the attack (Updated)
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strike by Ukrainian long-range weapons on an oil refinery in Russian Perm, located more than 1600 km from the Ukrainian border. Earlier, local residents and monitoring resources reported explosions and fire in the area of the "Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez" refinery.
"Tonight our deep strikes hit the refinery in Perm at a distance of over 1600 kilometers from the border and the military airfield "Marinovka" in the Volgograd region. There are also results in the Black Sea waters," Zelensky reported.
Thus, the Ukrainian side officially confirmed the hit on the facility, which Russian local residents and OSINT resources reported on the morning of August 21.
According to Astra, after a series of explosions in Perm, thick smoke rose over the territory of the "Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez" refinery. An OSINT specialist of the publication geolocated the footage published by local residents precisely in the area of the oil refining enterprise.
The monitoring resource Exilenova+ also published videos showing smoke and ignition in the area of the plant.
"Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez" belongs to the largest oil refining enterprises in Russia. Its capacity is about 13 million tons of oil per year. The plant produces gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, and other petroleum products.
This is not the first attack on the facility in recent months. Astra previously confirmed using OSINT analysis the attack on the Perm refinery on July 29. Attacks on the plant were also reported on May 7 and April 30.
The current attack took place against the backdrop of a massive drone raid on Russian territory. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that during the night Russian air defense allegedly intercepted and destroyed 325 Ukrainian UAVs over a number of regions, including Perm Krai, and over the Black and Azov Seas. There is no independent confirmation of the number of downed drones claimed by the Russian agency.
