Warsaw, Poland – An attack this past weekend carried out with Ukrainian strike drones may be a sign that Ukraine is escalating its war with Moscow by conducting increasing attacks on strategic centers and is possibly launching those operations from inside of Russia itself.
The most recent example was the strike on an oil depot in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region. The resulting fire and the emergency services’ efforts to contain the blaze created another episode similar to those previously seen at the oil terminal at Tupase on the Black Sea in April 2026.
Putin in Red Square in 2017 Creative Commons Image.
Many residents in the area were posting on their personal media platforms about “Black Rain” caused by oil falling from the sky as the fire raged. Others described the situation as “Hiroshima – only without the radiation.”
According to the Astra Telegram channel, the Ukraine attack took place during the night of 13-14 June, with the fire burning well into the following day. This city is also home to one of Russia’s major aeroengine design and development centers, the former Rybinsk Motors.
In 2001, this enterprise merged with the Lyulka Design Bureau (OKB) in Moscow, the same design center where the Sukhoi Su-27’s famous AL-31 jet engine was developed, forming NPO Saturn and creating one of the main heavy fighter engine development organizations.
The facility specializes in manufacturing advanced turbine blades and in using heat-resistant nickel alloys for the high-temperature “hot section” of the engine, which is essential to any next-generation engine design.
Operations Deep Inside of Russia? Maybe
The fact that Ukraine has long been hitting the Russian oil industry and storage sites is itself not a new development.
Even strikes on petroleum facilities hundreds of miles from the border with Ukraine – as this one was – are also becoming increasingly commonplace.
What makes this attack on this site in Rybinsk noteworthy is that, unlike other oil depots that have been targeted by Ukrainian drones, this one holds a particular strategic significance.
According to Russian officials, eyewitness accounts, and individual reports posted on the Astra and Exilenova+ Telegram channels, this attack specifically targeted the Temp fuel storage complex in Rybinsk.
Putin Back in 2023 Creative Commons Photo
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has since confirmed that operatives from its Special Operations Center “A” conducted this successful strike on the Temp reserve oil depot in Rybinsk.
This claim by the SBU also raises another potential worry for Russia, a retired NATO-nation military special operations officer pointed out.
“So many of these attacks on Russian oil sites are taking place so far from the border with Ukraine, it raises the question of where they are actually being launched from,” he explained.
“We know that Ukrainian special ops personnel have been conducting numerous activities on the territory of Russia – the assassination of senior military leaders that sometimes takes place in the capital city itself, the famous Operation Spider’s Web, etc. So, there is the possibility that some of these drone attacks are also being conducted from inside Russia’s own borders.”
Targeting a Strategic Reserve
The other unusual element was that the Temp facility is not a commercial site belonging to one of the big Russian energy companies. Instead, it is operated by Russia’s Federal Agency for State Reserves (Rosrezerv). This facility is a special storage site for strategic fuel and petroleum reserves intended for use during wartime, major emergencies, and national crises.
The Temp Combine, as it is called, is also not just any federal state-owned institution. It is responsible for storing these “untouchable strategic reserves” of petroleum products and has also become an important logistics hub for supplying fuel to Russian military units operating in northeastern European Russia.
The depot is located at coordinates 58.022611, 38.955343, which is more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) from Ukraine’s state border. The facility operates more than 60 storage tanks of various types, including large 5,000-cubic-meter tanks (RVS-5000).
This is not the first time that a facility belonging to Roscosmos has been hit with Ukrainian drones. A previous attack on Rybinsk occurred on 31 December 2025, sparking a major fire and destroying several storage tanks.
On 14 November 2025, drones targeted the Kristall oil storage site operated by Rosrezerv in Engels. The facility is used, among other purposes, to store aviation fuel for Russia’s strategic aviation forces – the long-range bomber force.
More likely than not, hitting these strategic facilities is now a newly-emerging target set for the Ukrainians. The question, again, is: from where exactly are these attacks being launched?
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
