Ukraine's military said it struck a Russian oil-blending hub and military airfield inside Russia on Nov. 13, targeting sites tied to oil exports and military aviation.
Ukraine's General Staff said several tanks caught fire at the Samara linear production and dispatch station near Prosvet. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said initial information pointed to hits on oil storage tanks and attributed the strike to long-range drones from its Alpha Special Operations Center.
The General Staff and SBU said trunk pipelines bring crude to Samara from Tatarstan, Western Siberia and other oil-producing regions of Russia. They said the facility combines different crude streams into Urals, an export grade that they say represents as much as half of Russia's oil exports.
At Lipetsk-2, the General Staff reported damage to an aircraft-service hangar, an aviation-fuel tank and the airfield's central command-and-control post. UNITED24 Media reported that it could not independently establish the full extent of the damage or its impact on Russian aviation.
The SBU said attacks on oil infrastructure can slow export preparation and complicate crude transport and storage. Both agencies presented the strikes as an effort to reduce oil revenue they say helps fund Russia's war, but gave no estimate of the disruption or financial impact. The Associated Press reported that Moscow had not commented on the Samara strike.
