On the night of August 25, 2026, a series of explosions was recorded in southern Russia, resulting in a fire at an oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai. According to OSINT channels and Russian Telegram channels, Rostov Oblast was also hit, but this part of the information had not received official confirmation from local authorities at the time of publication. The Governor of Krasnodar Krai, Veniamin Kondratyev, confirmed in his Telegram channel that drone debris fell on the territory of the Afipskaya railway station and a fire broke out on the territory of an oil refinery.
Timeline of events on the night of August 25
According to publications in OSINT channels, the first wave of the attack hit Rostov Oblast. At approximately 02:10 local time, reports of explosions in the Novoshakhtinsk area appeared online, where, according to preliminary data, the territory of an oil refinery was affected. However, at the time of preparing the material, local authorities of Rostov Oblast provided no official comments, and information about the consequences in Novoshakhtinsk remains unconfirmed. Shortly after, around 03:40, Krasnodar Krai came under attack: in comments to OSINT channels, residents of the region reported a series of explosions, after which a fire broke out in the area of the Afipsky oil refinery.
Confirmation from the Governor of Krasnodar Krai
Veniamin Kondratyev, head of Krasnodar Krai, wrote in his Telegram channel: "Debris from a drone fell on the territory of the Afipskaya railway station... A fire also broke out on the territory of an oil refinery." Thus, the fact of the attack by unmanned aerial vehicles and the subsequent fire at the oil refinery in the Afipsky area has been officially confirmed at the level of regional leadership. At the same time, the governor did not disclose details about the scale of damage, the number of casualties, or whether the fire was quickly contained.
Context: systematic strikes on oil refining infrastructure
The night of August 25 became a continuation of a months-long campaign of strikes on Russia's oil refining infrastructure. As reported on August 14, since the beginning of the current month, Ukrainian drones had attacked nearly a third of the country's major refineries. On August 21, according to Reuters, an oil refinery in Perm temporarily suspended operations — as a result of a drone attack, a fire broke out at the facility and technological units were damaged. Thus, the strikes on refineries in Krasnodar Krai and, possibly, in Rostov Oblast fit into a sustained trend of targeted pressure on the Russian fuel and energy sector.
Contradictory data
The key discrepancy in the available information at the time of publication concerns Rostov Oblast. OSINT channels report an attack on an oil refinery in Novoshakhtinsk around 02:10, but local authorities of the region neither confirmed nor denied this information. Meanwhile, events in Krasnodar Krai — the fall of UAV debris on the Afipskaya railway station and the fire at the refinery — have been officially confirmed by Governor Kondratyev. In addition, open sources do not specify whether the attack on Rostov Oblast was an independent episode or part of a single coordinated operation, nor do they provide data on the number of drones used, the nature of equipment damage, or the presence of casualties among personnel and residents of adjacent areas.
What is known at this point
As of the morning of August 25, 2026, it is confirmed: a fire on the territory of an oil refinery in the Afipsky area (Krasnodar Krai), the fall of drone debris on the Afipskaya railway station. Not confirmed: the nature and scale of damage in Novoshakhtinsk (Rostov Oblast), the total number of attacked facilities, the presence of casualties and injured, the causes of the fire (it is not ruled out that the fire could have been caused not only by a direct hit but also by the destruction of technological communications). Local authorities of both regions, at the time of publication, did not provide detailed official statements with an assessment of the damage.
