Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) forces overnight Sunday to Monday launched amphibious and airborne kamikaze drone strikes against targets in southwest Russia, with the main effort concentrating on a Black Sea oil tanker loading terminal critical to the Kremlin for export.
Sea-launched robot boats hit the Russian port city of Tuapse, one of Russia’s two main terminals for oil export via the Black Sea. Initial reports of an attack in progress reached local news platforms shortly after 1 AM on Monday. Video uploaded from viewpoints inside the city documented two explosions in the central port area, and fires.
With a capacity to trans-ship around 17 million metric tons of oil products/year, Tuapse is Russia’s second-biggest oil products export transshipment facility on the Black Sea.
Ukrainian robot boats had previously attacked Tuapse on Sept. 24 and overnight on Nov. 1-2. The latter raid damaged two tankers, halted fuel exports and refinery operations for days, caused an oil spill and forced tankers to abandon the port.
[UPDATED: Nov. 11, 12:37 pm , Kyiv time. Updated with reports from the General Staff of Ukraine and the Forces of Unmanned Systems confirming their involvement in the attack.]
A series of explosions rocked the Russian cities of Saratov and Engels early on Tuesday, Nov. 11, with social media reporting a fire at the Saratov oil refinery.
According to Russian Telegram channels, air defenses were on high alert in both cities amid the threat of drone attacks. Local residents reported hearing between five and seven loud explosions after 1 AM.
