Ukraine’s drones hit a major Russian oil refinery, sparking fire

Ukrainian drones struck a major refinery deep inside Russia, military officials said on Thursday (August 13, 2026), the fourth in three days in Kyiv’s months-long campaign to choke Moscow’s vital oil sector.

Ukraine’s General Staff said that its forces struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refining and petrochemical complex in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan overnight, causing a fire at the facility.

The complex, located southeast of Moscow about 1,300 km from Ukraine’s border, is one of Russia’s largest oil refining and petrochemical facilities, the General Staff said in a Telegram post.

Meanwhile, five first responders were killed in Russia-annexed Crimea by an explosion after a Ukrainian attack, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol said. “Our guys were inspecting the area after a Ukrainian attack.”