HUR drones carry out devastating attack on another Russian oil depot in the Rostov region

In the early hours of Wednesday, August 28, drones of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Service (HUR) and Special Operations Forces (SSO) attacked the Atlas oil depot in southern Russia's Rostov region, intelligence sources told the Kyiv Post.

Atlas is located near Kamensk-Shakhtinsky and is managed by the Federal Agency for State Reserves of Russia. The facility is part of the Russian military-industrial complex and directly supports the supply of Russian occupation forces.

Eyewitnesses reported a large fire in the oil depot's storage tanks. The exact extent of the damage caused by the operation is still being clarified, said a HUR source.

Rostov Region Governor Vasily Golubev confirmed that the region was attacked by drones, noting that four drones were shot down by air defense systems at around 3:00 a.m.

A video released by local residents shows several tanks at an oil depot ablaze.

The governor confirmed the fire at the oil depot and admitted that Ukrainian drones were the cause. He said there were no casualties and rescue workers were working to extinguish the fire. Golubev added that there was no danger of the fire spreading to residential buildings.

The Atlas fuel plant specifically supplied Russian units in the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.

According to Russian media, in August 2020, joint exercises of the Russian Defense Ministry and Rosreserv were held at the facility as part of the Kavkaz-2020 exercises. During the exercises, three methods of delivering oil products for military purposes were rehearsed: by road, by rail and via pipelines.

A nearby oil depot in Proletarsk, also in Rostov Oblast, was hit on August 19 and continued to burn for over a week.

Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil depots are a crucial part of a strategy to weaken Russia's oil sector, its most important economic asset.