Ukraine Strikes Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat Refinery in Bashkortostan for Second Time in a Month

Ukraine's Defense Forces, including operators from the 1st Separate Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces, struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refining and petrochemical complex in Salavat, Bashkortostan — roughly 1,300km from the Ukrainian border — on the night of August 13, igniting a fire. It was the second hit on the facility in a month, following a July 14 strike that damaged two primary distillation units. The refinery processes around 7.2 million tons of crude annually (~2.7% of Russia's refining capacity). The strike compounds a wave of Ukrainian attacks that has pushed Russian oil refining to its lowest level since 2002, triggering fuel shortages across at least 16 Russian regions.