Tuapse Oil Refinery Hit for Fourth Time in Sustained Strike Campaign

(TUAPSE, KRASNODAR KRAI, RUSSIA) – Ukrainian forces have struck an oil refinery in the Russian port city of Tuapse for the fourth time in recent weeks, setting the facility ablaze and triggering panic among local residents.

Footage released on 1 May 2026 shows thick black smoke billowing from the Rosneft owned refinery on Naftovykiv Street, identified as storage tank number 24. The facility, which processes approximately 240,000 barrels of crude oil per day, is a critical component of Russia’s fuel export infrastructure on the Black Sea coast.

The video, published by the commander of Ukraine’s SBS drone group “Madyar,” described the operation in a caustic tone. The commander’s in video caption reads: “Tuapse, Chornobaivka style, 4.0. The fourth remake: every week my friends and I travel to Tuapse. Naftovykiv Street, refuelling point number 24.” The reference to Chornobaivka evokes the repeated and successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian positions at the Kherson airfield early in the war, where Russian forces were hit with humiliating regularity.

This marks the fourth strike on Tuapse’s oil infrastructure in a sustained campaign targeting Russian energy facilities in the space of two weeks since 16 April. The previous three attacks had already disrupted operations, and the latest strike hit before firefighting crews had fully extinguished the remnants of the last. Local residents captured the aftermath on camera, their voices conveying a mixture of exhaustion and despair.

One female resident recorded a video message stating: “It is terribly frightening, terribly upsetting. They just put it out, just got rid of the smoke, and again everything is blazing. It is simply awful.”

Another local voice, recorded against the backdrop of the renewed blaze, said: “The morning is not very kind. We are burning again. They only just put it out. And again at night there was a strike. God, when will this all end? My poor city.”

A further resident is heard saying simply: “Frightening. Terribly.”

The footage also included a remark aimed at a local lodging owner identified only as “Aunt Siranush,” who according to the video had raised accommodation prices in the nearby resort town of Gelendzhik for the May holidays. The narrator suggested that the disruption to Russian infrastructure might, in its own way, recalibrate tourism economics along the coast.

The repeated strikes on Tuapse form part of Ukraine’s systematic effort to degrade Russia’s oil refining and fuel storage capacity, targeting facilities that supply military logistics, as well as the domestic energy market. The Rosneft facility at Tuapse is among the largest on the Russian Black Sea coastline and has been a priority target due to its role in fuelling the occupation forces.

The SBS command declared: “The worm like refuelling points are being retired. Escalating, gentlemen.”

The operation was coordinated by the SBS Deep Strike Centre. Live tracking of SBS strike results is publicly available via the unit’s online dashboard.

Footage of the strike was released by the press service of the SBS group under the command of “Madyar.”