A drone has attacked an oil refinery in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan, regional authorities said Thursday, the first such reported case in the region since Moscow invaded Ukraine more than two years ago.
“A drone attacked the industrial zone of Salavat city at around 13:00 today, after which there was smoke at one of the installations of Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat,” Bashkortostan head Radiy Khabirov said.
He added that Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, Russia’s 10th-largest refinery with a capacity of 10 million metric tons of oil per year, was “operating as normal” despite the attack.
Khabirov said emergency services and law enforcement authorities were at the scene and promised to provide updates later in the day. He did not indicate where the drone came from or whether there were any casualties in the attack.
Thursday’s drone strike was the first to ever target the republic of Bashkortostan, which is located around 1,500 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
In early April, drones attacked Russia’s third-largest oil refinery in the neighboring republic of Tatarstan, some 1,300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries inside Russia have led to a slump in the country’s gasoline production, according to Russian media reports.