Russian Oil Hub in Putin's Home City on Fire After Drone Hit

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) caused an explosion at an oil refinery in St. Petersburg, amid reports that Ukraine was behind another strike on Russia's infrastructure.

The drone crashed at the Nevsky Mazut refinery in Vladimir Putin's home city, with video shared on social media showing a blaze at the site.

The incident is the latest of a number of drone strikes on Russian oil facilities this month, with Krasnodar, Bryansk, Oryol and Leningrad oblasts all targeted. Kyiv does not often comment on alleged attacks on Russian territory.

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian defense ministry for comment.

Citing anonymous sources, local news outlet Fontanka said that a S-400 surface-to-air missile system had been used to intercept the drone at around 4.20 a.m. local time on Wednesday. It said that the drone had damaged only "three empty tanks," and the fire was extinguished quickly. Nevertheless, the incident prompted the closure of air space for just over an hour.

St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov posted on Telegram that there had been an "incident" but that no one was hurt, without specifically mentioning a drone.

Citing a Kyiv intelligence source, the RBC-Ukraine news outlet reported that Ukraine's military intelligence agency, GUR, was responsible for the attack and that despite the drone being shot down by Russian air defenses, "it still fell on the grounds of our target."

In a post about the strike, Ukrainian internal affairs advisor Anton Gerashchenko said that while Russian authorities said the drone was intercepted in Kolpino (16 miles southeast of St. Petersburg) it flew another 30 kilometers [19 miles]."

"That's a world record for survivability: no drone has ever flown 30 kilometers after being shot down," he wrote.

Russian Telegram channel Military Observer posted video of what it said was the debris of the drone. U.K.-based drone expert, Steve Wright, told Newsweek that the wreckage shown in the unverified clip looked consistent with the petrol-powered, propeller-driven winged drones such as "Beavers" that have been hitting Moscow.

"These drones are aerodynamically pretty simple and therefore easy for their autopilots to control, and it wouldn't surprise me if one could stagger on to its target after receiving a bit of damage from a near-miss by a missile," he said.

Gerashchenko said that the Nevsky Mazut refinery, located around six miles from the city's Winter Palace "produces bunker fuel, in other words, fuel for ships. And the suspension of the refinery's work will hit the logistics from St. Petersburg ports hard."

Among the recent spate of drone attacks on Russian refineries linked to Ukraine was a strike on a St. Petersburg oil terminal on January 18, which was the first on Putin's home region, Leningrad, since he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Another Ukrainian drone attack on the nearby gas export terminal in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga caused a huge fire and halted fuel supplies.

Authorities in three regions in northwestern Russia have turned off internet access at night to improve anti-drone technology, according to the business newspaper Kommersant, citing Russian telecoms sources.

Update 1/31/24, 06:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.

Update 2/1/24, 12:37 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Steve Wright.