Ukrainian drones attacked Krasnodar Krai and Rostov Region overnight on 26 September. Fires broke out at two industrial sites in Krasnodar Krai’s Seversky District. Ukrainian officials later said one of the targets was the Ilsky oil refinery. According to the regional emergency response headquarters, three people were killed and two others injured.
Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev reported fires at two industrial facilities but did not identify them. He said drone debris damaged a residential building. One person suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital.
The authorities said the fires had been extinguished. Damage to energy infrastructure temporarily left around 26,000 people without electricity. Train services were also disrupted after damage to overhead power lines cut electricity to the railway. Services were later restored.
Reports of a fire at the Ilsky refinery emerged shortly after the attack. The Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ also reported that the Afipsky refinery may have been hit. After analysing photographs and videos taken by eyewitnesses and geolocating the footage, the Astra Telegram channel concluded that the images showed a fire at the Ilsky refinery. Ukraine’s General Staff later confirmed that the facility had been struck.
In Rostov Region, the cities of Taganrog and Azov came under attack. Governor Yury Slyusar reported that one person was injured in Taganrog and four in Azov, including a child. All of them were taken to hospital.
According to the governor, apartment buildings and private homes, a school, a cultural centre, cars and industrial facilities were damaged in Azov. Cars were damaged in Rostov-on-Don.
Slyusar said Russian air-defence systems had shot down 30 drones overnight over Rostov-on-Don, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Novoshakhtinsk, Taganrog and Azov, as well as over the Azov, Myasnikovsky and Neklinovsky districts.
Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, later said the Azov Optical and Mechanical Plant had been the target of the attack. According to the Ukrainian security service, Neptune cruise missiles and rocket-powered drone missiles were used in the strike. It said facilities involved in optical and foundry production, an assembly area, a galvanising workshop and a printed-circuit-board production site were damaged.
The SBU also reported that railway tank cars carrying fuel and lubricants were hit in Azov and that a Pantsir-S2 surface-to-air missile and gun system was struck in Rostov Region.
According to the Ukrainian security service, the tank farm and an ELOU-AVT unit used for the primary processing of crude oil caught fire at the Ilsky refinery. Russian authorities have not disclosed the nature or extent of the damage to the refinery.
The Ilsky refinery has repeatedly been targeted since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The independent Russian publication 7x7 — Horizontal Russia has counted around two dozen such incidents. The previous major incident occurred on 8 August, when authorities said a fire at the facility had been caused by falling drone debris. Six people were injured.
The refinery is one of the major oil-processing facilities in southern Russia. Its capacity is up to 6.6 million tonnes of crude oil a year.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air-defence systems had intercepted and destroyed 645 drones overnight. According to the ministry, the drones were shot down over Astrakhan and Rostov regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol krais, nine other Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the waters of the Black and Azov seas.
At the same time, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia had launched 173 drones at Ukraine, including from airfields in Millerovo in Rostov Region and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Krasnodar Krai. Ukrainian authorities said 134 of them had been destroyed or suppressed by air-defence systems.
According to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, two people were killed and two injured, including a child, in Zaporizhzhia. Four people were injured in Kyiv and another four in Kharkiv Region.
