Ukraine strikes major Russian oil refinery causing massive fire amid conflicting reports

(MENAFN) Ukraine said Saturday that it launched a drone strike on one of Russia's biggest oil refineries, igniting a fire at the plant over 700 miles inside Russian territory.

One of the biggest and most advanced refineries in Russia, the Taneco refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, was attacked for the second time in a year by Ukrainian forces, according to Lieutenant Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation.

As workers struggle through the snow to evacuate from the burning building, social media photos geolocated by CNN seem to show enormous flames and smoke in the pitch-black skies.

The Republic of Tatarstan's press department disputed that there had been a fire at the factory despite the footage, claiming that it had been conducting a simulated evacuation as a safety precaution and that the blazing facility's photographs actually demonstrated "the work of the plant's torches."

MENAFN12012025000045016953ID1109080286