This morning, June 22, a fire broke out at the Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery in Rostov Oblast.
The Russian Ministry of Emergencies reported that the outbreak occurred in the heat exchanger of the refinery — the fire covered 50 square meters. The chief of Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergencies Sergey Filippov said that the vacuum installation burned. The fire was extinguished at 10:50 am, there were no casualties.
The governor of Rostov Oblast Vasiliy Golubev suggested that the cause of the fire could be a drone attack. According to him, fragments of two UAVs were found on the territory of the plant.
Prior to that, videos published by the Telegram channel Baza were shared on social networks. On them itʼs possible to see the moment of the strike of an unknown drone in the refinery and the fire.
A number of media outlets suggested that itʼs Ukrainian drone on the video. Radio Svoboda wrote that the refinery probably was attacked by the PD-2, which was bought for the Armed Forces by volunteer Serhiy Prytula and the Kalush Orchestra band.
However, the manufacturer of PD-2, Ukrspecsystems, denied this information. "We would like to draw your attention to the fact that in the video we see differences in the design of the UAV, including a short wing, no wing tips, a different geometry of the tail, even the sound of the engine is different. Most likely, it is a Chinese drone,” the company said.
- Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery with a planned production capacity of up to 7.5 million tons of oil per year was put into operation in 2009. According to the Skhemy investigative project, in 2014, at the time of the annexation of Crimea, the wives of the Ukrainian MPs Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak received shares in the refinery for about $40 thousand.
- On February 19, 2021, the National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions on eight people (including Medvedchuk) and 19 companies, including the Novoshakhtinsk Oil Products Plant. Sanctions have been imposed under the article on terrorist financing.
- Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said that Russian tanks stationed in the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas use diesel fuel from the Medvedchuk familyʼs plant.