Today, the "TASS" news agency reported, citing Russian emergency services, that a drone attack on the Elsky oil refinery in southern Russia, the second in two days, caused a fire. The "RIA Novosti" news agency indicated that today’s incident did not result in injuries and that the fire has been extinguished. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the attack on the Kremlin as a "hostile act." Lavrov stated at a press conference in India: "It is clearly a hostile act, and it is evident that the terrorists in Kyiv could not have done it without the knowledge of their masters." He added: "We will respond with concrete measures."
A source at the refinery told "Reuters" that "an air cooler was damaged in a unit with a production capacity of 1.8 million tons per year. There is another unit in the plant with a production capacity of 3.6 million tons per year. This cooler can be replaced within two weeks, although the full impact has not yet been assessed." It remains unclear who is behind the attack. Ukrainian officials typically do not claim responsibility for such attacks inside Russian territory, although they sometimes celebrate them. The Elsky refinery, located near the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea in the Krasnodar region, has an annual production capacity of approximately 6.6 million tons.
