Drones attacked Saratov region: fire at oil refinery; infrastructure damage in Engels. VIDEO+PHOTOS
On the night of 2 August, drones attacked Saratov and Engels. Damage to civilian infrastructure has been reported. Monitoring channels are reporting a fire at an oil refinery.
This is reported by Censor.NET, citing Russian Telegram channels and OSINT communities.
The region’s governor, Roman Busargin, stated that damage to civilian infrastructure had been recorded in Saratov and Engels. According to him, preliminary reports indicate there are casualties.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Telegram channel Supernova+, which monitors posts on Russian social media, published a video showing two fire outbreaks and thick smoke, claiming that the Saratov oil refinery had once again been hit. Footage has also been released showing a fire in a nine-storey residential block, where debris from a downed drone is believed to have fallen.
The Telegram channel Astra, having analysed the location where the video was filmed, also reported that it is indeed the Saratov Oil Refinery that is on fire.
The Engels-2 airfield came under attack
According to reports, Ukrainian drones also attacked the Engels-2 military airfield, where the Russian Federation’s strategic air force is based.
The city of Engels, situated on the opposite bank of the Volga from Saratov, is one of the key bases for Russian strategic bombers.
An attack on a Wildberries warehouse has been reported in the Samara region
In addition, local residents report an attack in the village of Novosemeykino in the Samara region. According to them, a Wildberries warehouse may have been hit.
There is currently no official confirmation of this information.
The Saratov oil refinery has been targeted on multiple occasions
The Saratov oil refinery has been targeted by Ukrainian drones on multiple occasions. The most recent attack on this facility was reported in early July. In total, the Saratov oil refinery has suffered at least 15 attacks since the start of the full-scale war.
This refinery is one of the oldest oil refining enterprises in Russia. In 2013, the plant became part of Rosneft. Its design capacity is around 7 million tonnes of crude oil per year.
It refines Urals crude and feedstock from the Saratov and Orenburg fields.
It produces over 20 types of products:
- petrol;
- diesel fuel;
- fuel oil;
- vacuum gas oil;
- bitumen;
- industrial sulphur, etc.
It has a pentane-hexane fraction isomerisation unit with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year, which enables the production of Euro 5-standard fuel.
