That is according to an OSINT analysis by Astra, Ukrinform reports.
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According to an analysis of photographs, the Samara LPDS, the largest oil transportation and distribution hub, is on fire near Samara.
Local authorities have not officially commented on the fire at the facility. However, explosions were reported in the city earlier, with a particularly powerful blast heard at around 06:30 local time.
Later, Samara Mayor Ivan Noskov said that ground public transport had been suspended, while the metro was operating as a shelter. The missile threat had been lifted, but the drone threat remained in place.
The facility covers more than 216 hectares and has 71 storage tanks with a total capacity of more than 1.6 million cubic meters of oil, as well as two oil pumping stations, Samara-1 and Samara-2, and a separate oil blending station.
Four trunk oil pipelines converge at the Samara LPDS: Almetyevsk-Kuibyshev, Kaltasy-Kuibyshev, Nizhnevartovsk-Kurgan-Kuibyshev and Guryev-Kuibyshev. The facility receives oil from Western Siberia, Tatarstan, the Orenburg region and Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, a glow from a fire can be seen in Volgograd in the area of the oil refinery and OJSC Kaustik. A drone attack had earlier been reported in the city.
On the night of October 1-2, Volgograd residents reported drones flying overhead and numerous explosions, which they said occurred "in all parts of the city," and complained about the lack of an air raid alert.
An analysis by Astra of footage filmed by eyewitnesses showed that the fire broke out in the area of the Volgograd Oil Refinery and OJSC Kaustik, which are located next to each other. The glow from the fire can be seen in that direction. It is not yet known what exactly caught fire.
Volgograd Region Governor Andrey Bocharov reported a massive UAV attack on the region's industrial infrastructure, but did not mention a fire at any of the enterprises, saying only that a residential building caught fire and one person was hospitalized.
Read also: Ukrainian forces hit Russian Buk-M3 SAM system, Akatsiya self-propelled gun in Luhansk regionOJSC Kaustik is a chemical industry enterprise located in southern Volgograd. It is one of the leading enterprises in the Volgograd region, producing basic dual-use chemical products that are critically important to Russia's military-industrial complex.
The Volgograd Oil Refinery is one of Russia's largest oil refineries and is part of PJSC LUKOIL. Its nominal capacity is about 14.8-15.7 million tonnes of crude oil per year, equivalent to approximately 5% of Russia's total oil refining capacity. It produces motor gasoline, including high-octane grades, diesel fuel, aviation kerosene (jet fuel), fuel oil and bitumen.
On October 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that targets had been hit in the Black Sea, as well as sites for the launch and storage of attack drones in the Oryol region, an oil facility in the Samara region and a supply depot for Russian troops in the Bryansk region.
First photo taken from social media for illustration