Tuapse Refinery Strike: Revenge for April 16 Missile Attack

April 16, 2026April 17, 2026

At the same time Orcs¹ attempted to execute the year’s most massive combined strike on Ukrainian territory, Ukrainian Good Birds² flew to them at several locations at once. The General Staff hadn’t yet issued reports about distant strikes, but Orcs themselves already write it flew thick and scary. The night strike’s main target turned out to be the port and port refinery in Tuapse. The Tuapse refinery strike seemed inevitable immediately after data came from the Rabid Federation that due to serious damage to the Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk and loss of part of export capacity, oil flows got redirected precisely to Tuapse.

Novorossiysk predominantly handles crude oil loading. In Tuapse, they built a refinery right at the shore. All port infrastructure initially got designed for loading oil products produced on site directly into tankers that took fuel abroad. Put simply, this asset from the very beginning got designed precisely for oil products and exclusively their export. From open sources it’s known that unlike other refineries, Tuapse has no capabilities whatsoever for loading its products onto rail transport. Therefore, the plant + port link works in unified rhythm and no other way. Stopping either of these two components stops the entire complex’s work.

When it became known that part of excess oil that can’t go into tankers from Novorossiysk’s Sheskharis terminal urgently redirects to Tuapse, Good Birds’ visit to this location became only a matter of time. Today this time came. Masses of drone attack videos already appeared online and as far as can be understood, a large number of UAVs went there. Judging from local residents’ videos, Orc air defense decided to refrain from participating in this fire show. At minimum, these same videos don’t demonstrate any special salutes and fireworks. From what we already managed to see, or more precisely hear in video background — small arms. Automatic weapons and possibly machine guns, nothing else.

Why Air Defense Didn’t Respond?

Perhaps they removed air defense that should be there. Or perhaps available air defense means had no ammunition. Also not excluded they decided not to show them so drones wouldn’t destroy rare expensive weapons along with refinery and port. In any case, locals write there were many drones and they flew from different sides.

At the refinery site formed at minimum three powerful fire sources. All in the tank farm area. This is understandable since refinery distillation equipment even in case of precise hit doesn’t give bright picture.

Based on videos from open sources, it’s possible to determine the locations of the hits.

Burning there stops quite quickly. So possibly technological installations received damage too, but behind large fires in reservoirs you simply might not notice this. But the burning itself can also differ greatly from what was in the same Novorossiysk. If containers burn not with oil supplied for processing but with finished gasoline, such fire behaves much more aggressively. Not excluded other containers will catch the merry relay race.

Local residents also say strikes hit port infrastructure. In any case, a solid smoke plume formed there and wind carries it to sea. From space this plume looks like a volcano with a plume 150-200 kilometers.

NASA Satellites Show Dozens of Fire Sources

Closer to evening, Robert “Madyar” Brovdi (Commander of the USF) reported the Tuapse refinery strike indeed hit its target:

🔥🔥🔥They pecked it apart and gutted it today, April 16 — the freedom-loving Ukrainian Birds hit Rosneft’s strategic asset, the Tuapse refinery. It’s burning beautifully.

The operation was carried out by deep strike units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. Birds from the Unmanned Systems Forces worked the target.

*video in the pinned comment
More to come…

Following this came details from different places and NASA satellite images appeared online fixing fire sources on earth’s surface. It turned out burning sources are so numerous that actually some comments were simply necessary:

Also reliably known: drones thoroughly worked on Tuapse railway junction. Individual strikes hit stenders — mooring devices for fuel transshipment to sea. If you carefully look at satellite images, you can see fire sources on piers extended into sea. Precisely these fires are hit stenders. Thus, Ukraine’s Defense Forces practically implement sanctions on Russian oil and oil product export. Understanding the full scope of the Tuapse refinery strike requires examining NASA satellite data showing unprecedented damage concentration across port and refinery facilities.

So the Orc April 16 massive strike didn’t go unpunished. According to some data, on surviving Ust-Luga port capacities they already resumed oil loading but Good Birds haven’t visited there for several days already…

¹Orcs – a common term for Russians who support or participate in the armed aggression against Ukraine. Dehumanizing? Yes. Accurate? Also yes.

²Good Birds – slang for strike drones. Why “good”? Because they bring “warmth and light” to enemy military factories, ammunition depots, and oil refineries. Sarcastic? Of course. Effective? Even more so.