Ukraine drone strikes cause shutdown at major Russian power plant
25 March 2024 08:11
During the night from Sunday to Monday, a fire broke out at the heat power plant in Novocherkassk in the Rostov region, in the European part of Russia. Social media users reported that the likely cause was an attack by Ukrainian drones.
Two blocks of the power plant were shut down, causing brief power outages for local residents. The fire has been extinguished. No one was injured - informed the Governor of Rostov region Vasily Golubev on Telegram.
As noted by Reuters, the heat power plant in Novocherkassk, controlled by the state energy conglomerate Gazprom, is one of the largest of its kind in southwestern Russia.
As reported by Kommersant, the Novocherkassk Power Plant (Novocherkasskaya GRES) was launched in 1965, about 53 km (approximately 33 miles) from Rostov-on-Don. As stated on the website of the State System Operator, the State Regional Power Plant of Novocherkassk along with the Nuclear Power Plant in Rostov is the main base plant of the Rostov energy system. Installed capacity - 2258 MW.
Russia points to drones from Ukraine
On Monday morning, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced that last night 11 Ukrainian drones were destroyed in the airspace over the Rostov region. Ukrainska Pravda noted that Russian anti-aircraft defense forces likely did not manage to shoot down all drones, as residents around Rostov-on-Don reported on social networks about a drone raid, followed by explosions near the power plant.
Authorities in Kiev have not yet responded to these reports.
In March, Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed that they had carried out attacks on refineries, including in Slavyansk in the Krasnodar Krai, Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov region, as well as in Ryazan, Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and in Kirishi in the Leningrad region. Russian and Ukrainian media also reported on raids on refineries in Syzran and Novokuibyshevsk in the Samara region and a fire near the heat power plant in Petersburg.
In the first half of the month, there were also reports of drone attacks on industrial facilities important to the Russian arms industry - the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant in Zheleznogorsk in the Kursk region and the Severstal metallurgical plants in Cherepovets in the Vologda region.
Blow to Russian fuel production
Reuters estimates that the processing capabilities of Russian refineries, taken offline in the first quarter of 2024 due to drone attacks, amounted to about 4.6 million tons of crude oil (an average of 370,500 barrels per day), which is equivalent to about 7% of the processing capabilities of all plants in the country.
US authorities have repeatedly emphasized that they do not encourage Ukraine to carry out attacks on Russian territory or assist in those operations.
On March 22, the British newspaper "Financial Times" reported that Washington is pressing Kiev, asking to halt drone attacks on refineries. According to these reports, the United States is concerned about a possible rise in oil prices on the world markets.
