Ukraine said Saturday it had hit one of Russia's largest oil refineries in a drone strike, setting the facility on fire more than 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) from Russian territory.still-21282330-2429-848-still.jpg
The attack on the Taneco refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan - one of Russia's largest and most modern refineries - was the second time the facility had been hit by Ukrainian forces in the past year, according to Lieutenant Andrii Kovalenko of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation.
Social media images geotagged by CNN appeared to show massive flames and smoke rising into the dark sky as workers struggled through the snow to evacuate the burning building.
Despite the footage, the press service of the Republic of Tatarstan denied that there was a fire at the plant, insisting that it was a simulated evacuation as part of a safety exercise and that the images of the glowing facility actually show "the work of the factory torch."
A view shows the Moscow oil refinery of Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft on the southeastern outskirts of Moscow, April 28, 2022.
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According to Ukrainian official Kovalenko, the Taneco refinery has a refining capacity of more than 16 million tons of oil per year and "plays a key role in supplying fuel to the Russian military." "The destruction of oil refineries and storage facilities directly affects Russia's ability to wage an intense war," he added.
Kovalenko said the refinery was also hit in the spring of 2024, in an attack that damaged its primary processing unit.
Last April, Ukrainian drone strikes in Tatarstan targeted a Shahed drone assembly plant and a primary oil refining unit at the refinery, one of the five largest facilities in Russia, sources told CNN at the time.
Last April's attack was the furthest into Russian territory that Ukraine had hit since the start of the war.
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