Ukraine Strikes Omsk Oil Refinery for Third Time, SSO Says

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) said its Deep Strike units struck the Omsk Oil Refinery for a third time on Wednesday, Nov. 11, targeting Russia’s largest refinery in Siberia, about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from Ukraine.The SSO confirmed the operation in its Telegram post. The latest attack marks the third strike on the refinery since July.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Omsk regional governor Vitaly Khotsenko said Russian air defense forces repelled Ukrainian drones in the region, according to Interfax Russia.Khotsenko said emergency services were working at sites where debris fell and urged residents not to photograph air defense operations. He did not identify the facilities involved. The drone alert was in effect for about eight hours on Wednesday, according to local reports citing the governor.On Thursday, Nov. 12, Khotsenko said one person was injured during the drone attack on the region. The person’s condition was stable, Russian outlet Kommersant reported, citing the governor.Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ reported a strike on the refinery and later said a fire continued in its industrial area. It posted video and images that it said showed the site, but the reported damage and its extent could not be independently verified.What does the Omsk refinery produce?The facility is owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and can process more than 21 million metric tons (about 23 million US tons) of oil annually, according to Ukrainian military statements. It produces gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, as well as lubricants and petrochemical products. Other Topics of Interest Russia Bans Ukrainian Resistance Movement Yellow Ribbon, Labels It ‘Extremist’ Founded in occupied Kherson in 2022, the movement is a nonviolent resistance group opposing Moscow’s invasion. Ukraine’s General Staff said the refinery supplies the Russian military. In an Oct. 8 statement, the General Staff described the Omsk plant as Russia’s most powerful oil-processing facility and said it supplied Russia’s occupying army.The SSO has described the refinery as Russia’s largest and one of its main producers of motor gasoline and aviation fuel. In a Nov. 6 post, it said the Omsk facility is the only Russian producer of catalysts used in secondary oil processing, meaning other refineries depend on its output.The Omsk refinery lies about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from Ukraine’s border. The SSO said its drones traveled nearly 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles) to reach the plant during the first strike in July. The flight distance and the refinery’s distance from Ukraine are different measurements.When were the 2 earlier strikes?The first SSO attack on the Omsk refinery took place on July 6. The SSO said in a statement that it damaged critical equipment, including the ELOU-AVT-11 primary oil-processing unit, which it described as the plant’s most important installation.“Without primary refining, all other facilities simply have no raw materials,” the SSO said after the July attack. It said the strike forced the refinery to stop processing oil and go into repairs.Ukraine’s General Staff said the ELOU-AVT-11 unit has an annual design capacity of 8.4 million metric tons (about 9.3 million US tons) of oil. The SSO described the July operation as the deepest long-range strike on Russian territory at the time since Russia launched its 2022 full-scale invasion.The first attack on the Omsk refinery was followed by a second strike on Oct. 8. The SSO’s Nov. 11 announcement marks the third time it has said its units struck the facility this year.The Omsk refinery was one of several Russian energy sites listed in the SSO’s Nov. 6 overview of Deep Strike operations in 2026. The same post listed two strikes on the Tyumen refinery, on June 20 and July 25, and an attack on Yamal gas facilities on Sept. 9.The SSO said drones traveled more than 3,500 kilometers (about 2,175 miles) to reach Yamal, exceeding the record set during July’s strike on Omsk. It said its units had hit targets more than 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles) inside Russia. The agency called the wider effort “long-range sanctions” against Russia’s oil industry. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 90% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.