Drones Stirke Sets Fire to Oil Pipeline in Russia’s Rostov Oblast

3 March, 2025 Fire on an oil pipeline in the Rostov Oblast 03/03/2025. Photo from open source An oil pipeline caught fire in Rostov oblast following a drone strike.

According to eyewitnesses, the attacks occurred in the Chortkivsky district. According to the report of the Astra Telegram channel, the attack targeted the Chortkovskiy district. Acting Governor of the Rostov Oblast, Yuri Slyusar, confirmed the incident.

"As a result of a massive UAV attack, an oil pipeline caught fire in the Chortkivsky district. Emergency services have arrived at the scene. The staff has been evacuated.

Preliminary, there are no casualties," he wrote. According to Russian channels, the staff of the oil depot was evacuated, and there are no casualties.

Firefighters are working to contain the blaze, but efforts are complicated by the intensity of the fire. The exact facility affected remains unclear, as multiple oil depots in the vicinity of Chortkiv and the Kuibyshev-Lysychansk oil pipeline are located in the area. At the end of February, drones of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) attacked the Novovelychkovskaya oil pumping station in Krasnodar Krai.

The SSU drone attack took place on February 20, 2025. The Novovelychkovskaya oil pumping station is one of the key ones for oil transportation in Kuban. It supplies oil to the Afip and Ilya refineries.

The drone strike hit the 110/35/10 kW power substation that supplies the station. The substation caught fire, causing a complete blackout and an emergency shutdown of the oil pumping process. "Each such 'boom' brings multimillion-dollar losses to the Russian Federation and complicates the supply of fuel to the Russian army," a source in the Defense Forces said.

Over the past year, Ukrainian drones attacked oil refineries and fuel bases at least 81 times in Russia and in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Explosion of a tank with oil products at a refinery in Ryazan. Russia. January 24, 2025.

Footage from video from social networks

Oil facilities in the southern regions of Russia were most often targeted.