Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said it carried out successful strikes, together with the country's defense forces, on the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the Russian city of Yaroslavl and on patrol boats of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in occupied Kerch.
The SBU said the Yaroslavl refinery, located more than 700 kilometers from Ukraine's border, is one of Russia's five largest oil refining enterprises, with a capacity of nearly 15 million tons of oil per year. The plant produces gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation kerosene and other strategically important petroleum products for central Russian regions and the Moscow metropolitan area.
"As a result of the attack by Ukrainian drones, at least six explosions sounded on the territory of the enterprise, and fires broke out in four different parts of the plant. According to preliminary information, four RVS-2000 tanks with crude oil were damaged, which caused a spill. Two tanks are engulfed in fire. In addition, key technological units ELOU-1 and AVT-3 were damaged, and fires also broke out there," the SBU said in a statement.
The SBU also said that as a result of drone strikes on the port area in Kerch, two patrol boats of Project 10410 ("Svetlyak") of the FSB's coast guard — the "Balaklava" and the "Kerch" — were damaged. Russian authorities did not report the damage.
Yaroslavl region governor Mikhail Yevrayev said the region had come under the most massive drone attack of the war overnight. According to him, "all 93 drones were eliminated," but "due to falling debris," the refinery's tanks were hit.
Russia's Defense Ministry reported that on August 6 it destroyed 605 Ukrainian drones over several regions, including the Yaroslavl region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky added that Ukrainian forces had struck two military patrol boats and vessels of the so-called shadow fleet.
The accounts diverge: the SBU claims the refinery and boats were hit in the attack, while the Yaroslavl governor attributes the fire to debris from downed drones. Russian authorities have not commented on the damage to the boats in Kerch.