Ukraine Strikes Russia’s Largest Crude Export Pumping Station Near Border

Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence in coordination with the military have claimed a direct major hit on yet another site within Russia’s oil infrastructure: a key oil-pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline located in Unecha, Bryansk Oblast.

The overnight strike reportedly caused a fire in the facility’s line production and dispatch control center, resulting in Russian emergency servies rushing to the scene, in a southern border area.

This hub of Russia’s crude exporting pipelines was scene of a series of explosions and large fire. In all during the attack there was a broader, and what’s become typical, assault which saw Russia down 46 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) overnight.

Russia’s ministry of defense tallied “15 over the territory of the Bryansk region, 11 over the territory of the Volgograd region, 7 over the territory of the Rostov region, 5 over the territory of the Krasnodar region, 2 over the territory of the Belgorod region, 2 over the territory of the Voronezh region, 2 over the territory of the Republic of Crimea, 2 over the waters of the Sea of Azov.”

Unecha is the main hub in the Druzhba pipeline network and is operated by the Transnefteprodukt holding, with the site facilitating oil transportation across a pipeline system spanning over 5,500 miles. Kiev sees it as playing a critical role in fueling Russia’s military-industrial sector, hence it being targeted.

This isn’t the first attack on this facility, as regional reports say that on August 6 a similar drone strike caused a smaller fire.

Just days ago, a Russian oil refinery in Saratov which is owned Rosneft halted all crude oil intake after suffering a significant drone strike. The war on each other’s energy infrastructure has grown hotter than ever, after President Trump early in his administration got the sides to agree to a short-lived ‘energy truce’. That’s clearly no more.

Not only Ukrainian drones, but OPEC is now clearly gunning for Russia’s oil industry. pic.twitter.com/2h58wiHQPS

— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) August 13, 2025

Meanwhile Russia’s Foreign Minister has lambasted Zelensky for the attacks, accusing him of keeping the war going, but which is really him against the Ukrainian people, according to spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

In a Wedensday briefing she said, “Zelensky is not fighting against Russia. Zelensky is fighting against the Ukrainian people. And his mission which was prescribed for him by someone is to destroy the Ukrainian nation, and to destroy it under the flags of nationalism and the flags of a certain national identity, and to destroy it physically.”