Russian refinery completely halted operations after Ukrainian attack
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Rosneft's Kuibyshev refinery has been forced to shut down both of its primary refining units after the fire, thus halting production completely, two industry sources told The Moscow Times on Thursday.
On March 23, a major fire broke out at the Kuibyshev refinery caused by a drone attack. As a result, a primary plant was damaged. However, the refinery was forced to shut down a second primary refining unit as well, even though it was not hit in the attack. A technological link between the first and second units led to this decision. Rosneft has not yet given official comments.
According to Reuters calculations, the total capacity of the primary oil refining units that are on emergency downtime after the external attack is 124,580 tons per day. This is 14% of the total capacity of the operating primary units at Russian refineries.
In March, attacks on Russian refineries intensified. In particular, on March 12, a fire broke out at one of Russia's largest refineries, the Nizhny Novgorod refinery, and on March 13, UAVs struck the Ryazan refinery and the Novoshakhtinsk refinery near Rostov-on-Don. On March 16, drones attacked two oil refineries in the Samara region, both of which started fires after the strikes. On the night of March 17, drones attempted to attack the Slavyansk oil refinery in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban; the crash of one of them caused a fire.
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Memorial to the fallen Moldovan soldiers of the Transnistrian War in Chisinau. Photo: Alexander Moisseenko
Thirty-three years ago, a ceasefire brought an end to the Transnistrian War—sometimes described by locals as the Russian-Moldovan War. Although the tensions officially ended in 1992, its consequences continue to shape Moldovan politics, society, and security — especially in view of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
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