Russian emergency crews have completed cleanup operations in the Black Sea port town of Tuapse after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on a local refinery caused an oil spill, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday.
Tuapse has been under a state of emergency since late April, when successive waves of drone strikes sparked major fires at the Rosneft-operated facility, prompting an evacuation of nearby residents and releasing slicks of oil into the waters off the coast.
Alexei Klushin, head of the Krasnodar region branch of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, announced that the cleanup is now finished and protective barriers have been erected around both the oil refinery and the nearby marine terminal.
Environmental experts and volunteers told the exiled news outlet Vyorstka last week that they believe the authorities are underreporting the environmental damage caused by the oil spill.
The Tuapse facility has a production capacity of around 12 million metric tons per year, or 240,000 barrels per day. It produces naphtha, diesel, fuel oil and vacuum gasoil, most of which is exported.
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure in recent months in a bid to deprive the Kremlin of energy windfalls amid the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Attacks disrupted the operations of at least 16 refineries across the country between January and March, according to Reuters, leading to a slump in Russia’s oil production output.
