Drone Strike Ignites Major Oil Tank Farm Near Russia’s Novorossiysk Port

A drone strike sparked a fire at the Grushova industrial tank farm near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk overnight on June 7–8, Russian media outlet Astra reported on June 8.

Local residents reported hearing around 50 explosions before thick smoke rose over the oil depot.

The site is part of the transshipment infrastructure linked to the Sheskharis terminal operated by Chernomortransneft. It is located in the Grushova Balka area beyond the Markotkh Range, roughly 12 kilometers from Novorossiysk.

The Grushova Balka oil depot has a total tank farm capacity of more than 1.2 million cubic meters. Individual reinforced concrete and steel storage tanks at the site range in capacity from 5,000 to 50,000 cubic meters.

The tank farm includes around 40 to 47 storage tanks.

In addition to photos and videos from the area, the strike was also confirmed by NASA’s FIRMS monitoring service, which detected abnormal heat signatures on the territory of the oil depot. Satellite data recorded high temperatures at 2:48 a.m. on June 8.

This is not the first reported attack on the oil depot. Because the site is directly connected to the Sheskharis transshipment complex, the area has been repeatedly targeted, last time in late May.

Sheskharis is a major oil transshipment complex at the port of Novorossiysk and serves as the endpoint for key trunk oil pipelines in Russia’s Krasnodar region.

The facility plays an important role in Russia’s Black Sea oil export infrastructure, making it a high-value target in the wider campaign against fuel and energy facilities that support Moscow’s war economy.

Earlier, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces carried out overnight drone strikes against two fuel infrastructure sites in temporarily Russian-occupied Crimea, targeting the Semykolodezyanska oil depot and a maritime oil terminal in Feodosia.

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