SBU and HUR Behind Overnight Drone Strikes on Russian Oil Depots and Port, Sources Say

Sources within the special services have told Kyiv Post that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (HUR) are behind the massive drone attack on Russian regions.

The drone attack targeted significant locations in occupied Sevastopol in Crimea, as well as the cities of Tuapse and Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar Krai (Territory) of Russia.

“It was a very hot night for Russian military logistics facilities located in Crimea and on the Russian Black Sea coast,” one source said.

Explosions were particularly notable in Sevastopol Bay, where a hit on the Sevastopol electrical substation led to power outages.

“There was a fire show in Sevastopol Bay all night long,” a source told Kyiv Post.

In Novorossiysk, explosions were recorded near the oil terminal and the railway station.

Sources also confirmed a drone attack on the oil refinery in Tuapse, saying that “SBU drones have ‘visited’ the oil refinery for the second time this year, which the Russians had just begun to restore.” Due to the new explosions, repairs will need to be started again, the source added.

“Today’s special operation proved that the Russians are not capable of protecting their main naval bases in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk,” the source said.

The source also told Kyiv Post that the Russians can only hide their warships in the depths of ports behind civilian ships.

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“Russians can forget about the dominance of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Ukrainian ‘cotton’ (a term used in Ukraine to humorously refer to explosions) will find them everywhere!” added the source.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced a massive overnight drone attack on Russian regions, claiming that “more than 100 Ukrainian drones” were intercepted in the south of the country, over occupied Crimea, and the Black Sea.

In Tuapse, a fire broke out at a local oil refinery ignited by a Ukrainian drone attack. Local authorities confirmed the drone attack on the refinery, where “as a result of the fall” of one of the two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), “an explosion occurred on the territory of the refinery.”

Before this attack, explosions rocked Russia’s largest oil refinery on the Black Sea late Wednesday evening, January 24, in a Ukrainian drone strike orchestrated by the country’s national spy agency, the SBU.

Multiple still images and videos showed the fire at the Tuapse oil refinery operated by the Russian oil company Rosneft. This major fuel and lubricants processing facility is Russia’s main oil terminal on the Black Sea, producing two million tons of product annually in pre-war years, almost all of it for export.

An SBU source confirmed to Kyiv Post that the spy agency was responsible: “An oil refinery in Tuapse, Russia, has become another target of the SBU. SBU drones attacked this important facility for the enemy. After two powerful explosions, a large-scale fire broke out. The primary oil processing unit, specifically the vacuum and atmospheric columns, was damaged.”

In Novorossiysk, residents reported hearing more than 35 explosions during the drone attack. UAVs targeted at least two oil depots and two petroleum terminals, according to Russian Telegram channel Astra.

Specifically, the Novorossiysk fuel oil terminal and the Importpischeprom terminal suffered damage, with drones striking two fuel tanks. Furthermore, the attack extended to the Gazprom oil depot in the village of Kirilovka and the Grushovaya Balka oil depot of Transneft, according to Astra. No casualties were reported.

The local governor, Veniamin Kondratiev, stated via Telegram that air defense forces suppressed more than 10 drones, and local fires broke out due to the fall of UAV debris.