Ukrainian drones ignite oil bases: Russian efforts fall short

- What an explosion. I felt the heat even here. Did you feel it? Are there any boys there? Pull back, vehicles move back! - says one of the Russian firefighters in a new recording documenting the action of extinguishing tanks with oil and fuels in Proletarsk. He stands at least several hundred meters from the fire. He utters a string of curses when another tank explodes.

Another recording from 21 August. The Russian Telegram channel "This is Rostov" shows firefighters trying to escape with a fire truck through an alley between the tanks. One of them is just exploding. - What heat. Sania, let’s get out of here, let’s get out of here! - a firefighter shouts in the video. The driver floors the gas, and an orange glow appears in the cab from the flames raging nearby. Another film shows that the truck and people broke out of the trap, driving onto an empty field.

The nightmare for the Russians doesn't end there. On Thursday, six tanks were extinguished (reported by the TASS agency). Ukraine renewed the drone attack on the base at 00:00 GMT. Reports about it appeared on Telegram on Friday. There were no reports of casualties from the attack. Instead, more videos of erupting flames were published, again with a litany of curses heard in the background, likely directed at Ukrainians.

On 18 August, the fire was initiated by shooting down Ukrainian drones targeting the tanks. According to analysts, the base was shrouded in black smoke and 22 out of more than 40 tanks caught fire. During the multi-day firefighting operation, 47 workers from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations were injured, 15 of whom were hospitalized, reported the Russian agency TASS.

According to firefighter Władysław Gonczarow’s account, firefighting equipment from the local units burned in the operation. Gonczarow appealed for fundraising online, which didn’t please the authorities.

The fire in Proletarsk is a result of the Ukrainian offensive that has been ongoing throughout this year, targeting refineries and fuel bases with drones. We show the scale of this on the infographic. On Thursday - after a Ukrainian attack near the Kerch Strait, the Russian ferry "Aquatrader" carrying rail tankers with fuel caught fire and sank.

On 21 August in the afternoon near Olenia military airport in the Murmansk region (in the north of Russia), for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a drone was shot down - a modified aircraft. If it was launched from Ukraine, it would be a record (2,000 km) flight length over Russia. This event suggests that the hunt for refineries will cover new areas.

- Ukraine undertakes these attacks to paralyse logistics, as Putin’s war machine needs constant supplies of vast amounts of fuel - comments Wojciech Jakóbik, Polish energy sector analyst and founder of the Centre for Energy Security, in a conversation with WP. He points out that Proletarsk is important because it is used to back up the front and the offensive in eastern Ukraine.

- Hitting the oil sector aims to create fuel shortages at the front, but not only that. By damaging refineries and other installations, it reduces the profits of Russian companies from fuel sales. This way, the attacks contribute to increasing the effects of the sanctions imposed on Russia - adds the WP interlocutor.

He points out that Russia has been forced to introduce an embargo on petrol exports, meaning there was a fuel shortage on the domestic market. Russian media also reported the threat of rail paralysis, which had to urgently deal with transporting raw materials to undamaged refineries for fuel production.

According to Wojciech Jakóbik, the most painful for Russia is the attacks on refineries because their repair is costly and time-consuming, followed by bases storing fuels and raw materials. In spring 2024, after a series of drone strikes, Ukraine managed to shut down 7% of Russian refinery capacities - estimated by experts from the magazine "Forbes".