---
title: "Ukrainian General Staff confirms strikes on the Afipsk refinery and the Astrakhan gas processing plant: fires broke out at both facilities"
description: "The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed strikes on the Afipsk refinery in Krasnodar Krai and the Astrakhan gas processing plant. Fires broke out at both enterprises, which supply the Russian army."
date: 2026-08-25T08:38:00.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/ukrainian-general-staff-confirms-strikes-on-afipsk-refinery-and-astrakhan-gas-plant
tags: [ukraine-russia-war, oil-refinery, gas-processing, energy-infrastructure, fire-point, drone-strikes]
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Ukrainian General Staff confirms strikes on the Afipsk refinery and the Astrakhan gas processing plant: fires broke out at both facilities

![Russian EMERCOM firefighter extinguishing a fire amid heavy smoke following strikes on Afipsk refinery and Astrakhan gas plant](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/25/genshtab-vsu-potverdil-udary-po-afipskomu-npz-i-astrahansk-gpz/genshtab-vsu-potverdil-udary-po-afipskomu-npz-i-astrahansk-gpz-1.webp)

## 🎯 Key Points

- The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed a strike on the Afipsk refinery in Krasnodar Krai (night of 25.08.2026) and on two U-272 separation units at the Astrakhan gas processing plant (night of 24.08.2026).
- The Afipsk refinery has a design capacity of 6.25 million tonnes of crude oil per year; a fire broke out at the enterprise after the strike.
- The Astrakhan gas processing plant is part of the Gazprom system, with a capacity of up to 12 billion m³ of gas and about 7.3 million tonnes of condensate per year; it produces technical sulphur — a raw material for explosives.
- The strikes coincided with a nighttime wave of drone attacks on Rostov Oblast and Krasnodar Krai (explosions near Novoshakhtinsk, a fire near the Afipsk refinery).
- Additional sources indicate that the Afipsk refinery has been hit at least 15 times, and report a fire at the Amur gas chemical complex — this data is not detailed in the General Staff's statement.

### Two strikes on energy infrastructure

Ukraine's defence forces reported a series of successful strikes on Russian oil and gas industry facilities. According to a statement by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the targets were the Afipsk oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai and the Astrakhan gas processing plant. According to the ministry, fires broke out on the territory of both enterprises, while the exact scale of the damage was still being assessed at the time of publication. Reports of the strikes emerged in the night of 25 August 2026 and were confirmed by Ukrainian military structures.

The attacks were recorded against the backdrop of a nighttime wave of drone strikes on southern Russia. Initially, explosions were reported in the Novoshakhtinsk area of Rostov Oblast, after which a fire broke out near the Afipsk refinery in Krasnodar Krai. Thus, strikes on oil and gas processing capacities became part of a broader operation to hit facilities that, according to Kyiv's assessment, supply the Russian armed forces with fuel and raw materials.

### Afipsk refinery: capacity and consequences

The Afipsk oil refinery, located in Krasnodar Krai, is one of the largest in the region. Its design capacity is 6.25 million tonnes of crude oil per year. The enterprise produces diesel fuel and gasoline components, which, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, are used to meet the needs of Russian troops in the occupied territories.

Following the nighttime strike, a fire broke out on the plant's territory. The Ukrainian side emphasises that hitting such facilities is aimed at weakening the enemy's logistical and fuel base. The company Fire Point had previously also reported the use of long-range strike weapons against Russia and the hitting of the Afipsk refinery in particular, indicating that the facility had already been a target before.

### Astrakhan gas processing plant: raw materials for munitions

The second confirmed target was the Astrakhan gas processing plant, part of the Gazprom system. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the night of 24 August two U-272 gas separation units were hit. The enterprise's design capacity is estimated at up to 12 billion cubic metres of gas and about 7.3 million tonnes of gas condensate per year.

The plant produces marketable natural gas and stable gas condensate, as well as gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gases, and technical sulphur. Particular attention in the statement is given to technical sulphur: it is a critically important raw material for manufacturing explosives, which, in Kyiv's logic, makes the enterprise part of the Russian armed forces' supply chain.

### Context: a series of drone attacks on southern Russia

The strikes on the Afipsk refinery and the Astrakhan gas processing plant fit into the picture of nighttime drone attacks on Rostov Oblast and Krasnodar Krai. According to reports, the chronology of events began with explosions near Novoshakhtinsk, after which a fire was recorded in the area of the Afipsk refinery. The totality of these incidents indicates the continuation of a campaign to hit energy and industrial infrastructure in southern Russia.

The Ukrainian side positions such strikes as retaliatory measures against facilities that directly support the Russian military machine. At the same time, both sides of the conflict typically publish data on the results of strikes with a delay and to varying degrees of detail, which requires careful verification of each individual fact.

### Contradictory data

The official statement of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, transmitted through Ukrainian media, records exactly two targets — the Afipsk refinery and the Astrakhan gas processing plant — specifying the dates of the strikes (the night of 25 August for the refinery and the night of 24 August for the gas plant). However, a number of other sources expand the picture: according to several Russian and Ukrainian publications, the Afipsk refinery has been hit not for the first time — this is at least the fifteenth hit on this facility, and in that same night, according to separate reports, a fire also broke out at the Amur gas chemical complex. These additional episodes and the cumulative strike statistics are not detailed in the General Staff's statement, so they should be treated as information requiring further verification. The discrepancies in the list of hit facilities and in the assessment of the frequency of strikes on the same plant form a zone of inconsistency, which the editorial team notes openly.

## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification

- [General Staff confirms the hitting of the Afipsk refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai](https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/genshtab-pidtverdiv-urazhennya-afipskogo-1787646384.html) - Первичное подтверждение удара по Афипскому НПЗ со ссылкой на Генштаб ВСУ; основа для дат и описания пожара.
- [Ukrainian forces hit the Afipsk refinery and the Astrakhan gas processing plant: what is known](https://fakty.com.ua/ru/ukraine/20260825-zsu-urazyly-afipskyj-npz-ta-astrahanskyj-gazopererobnyj-zavod-shho-vidomo/) - Дублирует оба объекта, мощности (6,25 млн т нефти; 12 млрд м³ газа, 7,3 млн т конденсата) и продукцию завода, включая техническую серу.
- [Defence forces strike the Afipsk refinery and the Astrakhan gas plant – plants supplying ...](https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2026/08/25/8050204/) - Подтверждает связь предприятий с обеспечением вооружённых сил РФ и контекст ночных атак дронов на юг России.
- [The Afipsk refinery has been hit at least 15 times. A fire broke out at the Amur gas chemical ...](https://theins.ru/news/296391) - Вводит накопительную статистику (15-й удар) и отдельный эпизод пожара на Амурском ГХК, не детализированные в заявлении Генштаба; учтено в блоке «Противоречивые данные».

## ❓ FAQ

### Q: Which specific facilities did Ukraine's defence forces hit?
**A:** According to the statement of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the targets were the Afipsk oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai (night of 25 August) and two U-272 gas separation units at the Astrakhan gas processing plant (night of 24 August). Fires broke out at both enterprises.

### Q: What are the capacities of the hit plants?
**A:** The Afipsk refinery has a design capacity of 6.25 million tonnes of crude oil per year. The Astrakhan gas processing plant, part of the Gazprom system, has a capacity of up to 12 billion m³ of gas and about 7.3 million tonnes of gas condensate per year.

### Q: Why are these facilities considered important for the Russian military machine?
**A:** The Ukrainian side points out that the plants' products are used to supply the Russian armed forces, and that the technical sulphur produced at the Astrakhan gas processing plant is a raw material for manufacturing explosives.

### Q: Are there any discrepancies in the data on the strikes?
**A:** Yes. The official statement records two facilities, while a number of sources additionally report that the Afipsk refinery has been hit at least 15 times, and of a fire at the Amur gas chemical complex. This information is not detailed in the General Staff's statement and has been placed in the 'Contradictory data' block.