Ukrainian drones attacked an oil refinery in Ufa overnight Wednesday, with monitoring Telegram channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+ reporting a fire at one of Bashneft's plants — either Bashneft-UNPZ or Bashneft-Novoil.
Radii Khabirov, head of Bashkortostan, said the region's enterprises came under a massive attack. According to him, air defense forces shot down 25 drones, but one fell on an industrial zone, causing a fire. Khabirov did not specify which enterprise was burning.
OSINT analysts at the outlet Astra concluded that the Bashneft-Novoil plant was hit, Radio Liberty reported. The Moscow Times, citing Exilenova+ channels, wrote that Bashneft-UNPZ was burning. These plants, together with Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim, form the Ufa oil refining complex — one of Russia's largest, with a total capacity of 23.5 million tons per year.
This is the third attack on Bashneft refineries in a week. Previous strikes occurred on August 1 and 2, when the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim plant came under attack. The same enterprise was hit by drones on July 8 and June 25. Ufa lies about 1,600 km from the border with Ukraine.
On August 3, Khabirov said fuel production in Bashkortostan would not decrease, attributing possible disruptions to logistics problems.
According to S&P Global data from late July, the Ufa refinery remained one of the few plants operating at 100% capacity. Meanwhile, 11 refineries in Russia were forced to cut production by 30-70%, and seven were completely idle. Total refining volume in July fell to 3.6 million barrels per day — the lowest since May 2002.