On the night of October 15, Ukrainian drones struck targets in Russia’s Volgograd and Bashkortostan regions, according to local authorities and monitoring reports.
In Volgograd, the settlement of Kirova in the Svetloyarsky district was hit, damaging four private houses from falling drone debris. No injuries were reported, according to the regional administration. Kirova is located near the Krasnoarmeysky industrial zone, which houses the Lukoil Volgogradneftepererabotka refinery, one of the largest oil producers in Russia’s Southern Federal District, with an annual capacity of 14.8 million tons. The monitoring channel Crimean Wind reported that the strike caused a fire at the refinery.
In Bashkortostan, drones targeted an industrial zone in Ufa, where the Ufaorgsintez refinery, operated by Bashneft, is located. Local residents reported seeing smoke rising over the area along the Birskiy Trakt, and footage shared on social media showed airplane-type drones flying overhead. Mobile internet outages were reported across the region, and a drone threat was announced in the morning, leading to the temporary closure of Ufa airport at 10 a.m.
The Crimean Wind monitoring channel confirmed the strike on the Bashneft refinery, located roughly 1,400 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The site had previously been targeted on October 11, when Ukrainian intelligence reported a fire starting near the crude oil processing unit ELOU-AVT-6.
Ufa is a major oil refining hub in Russia, supplying fuel to the civilian sector as well as the Russian military. The city hosts three refineries owned by Bashneft, a subsidiary of Rosneft: Novoyl, Bashneft-UNPZ, and Ufaneftekhim, with a combined annual processing capacity of 23.5 million tons of oil.
