Russia’s Largest Caucasus Oil Terminal Hit After Ukrainian Drone Strike

The Ukrainian military struck one of Russia’s most important oil export facilities overnight, setting ablaze the Grushovaya oil transshipment depot near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, according to Ukraine’s General Staff and open-source monitoring groups.

The strike took place overnight between Sunday and Monday, as Ukrainian forces targeted a series of military, logistics and fuel infrastructure sites across Russia.

In a statement on Telegram, Ukraine’s General Staff said the military hit the Grushovaya oil depot near the settlement of Grushovaya Balka in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, confirming a fire at the facility.

“The extent of the damage is being clarified,” the update says.

According to the General Staff, the depot is part of the Sheskharis oil transshipment complex, the final destination of major oil pipelines in southern Russia. The site receives, stores and transfers crude oil and petroleum products through the port of Novorossiysk.

The storage complex has a total capacity of approximately 1.4 million cubic meters (49 million cubic feet), with most of the oil storage concentrated at the Grushovaya site.

Open-source intelligence channels reported a massive fire after the attack, with residents posting videos showing thick smoke rising above the facility.

Strategic hub for Russian oil exports

The Grushovaya depot forms part of the Sheskharis offshore oil terminal operated by Chernomortransneft, a subsidiary of Russian pipeline giant Transneft.

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The facility is the largest oil storage terminal in the Caucasus region and can handle up to 75 million tons of oil and petroleum products annually.

Under normal operations, the terminal processes around 700,000 barrels of oil per day and accounts for approximately 20% of Russia’s seaborne crude exports.

The General Staff also reported strikes on the Krasny Yar oil pumping and dispatch station in Russia’s Volgograd region, where a fire was also recorded.

The station serves as a critical node supplying oil to the Volgograd refinery and onward to the Sheskharis export terminal through the Kuibyshev-Tikhoretsk pipeline system.

In addition, Ukrainian forces reported hitting a Russian radar station near Kabardinka in Krasnodar Krai, as well as drone command posts in the occupied Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions and Russia’s Kursk region.

The latest strike follows a series of Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure aimed at disrupting fuel supplies and export revenues that help finance Moscow’s war effort.

On June 2, Ukraine targeted the Ilsky Oil Refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, marking the fourth reported strike on the facility this year.

The General Staff also confirmed damage from a Saturday strike on the Ust-Labinsk oil depot in Krasnodar Krai, where fuel storage tanks, railway loading infrastructure and fuel containers were damaged.