A fire broke out at the Novocherkassk thermal power plant in the Rostov Oblast, one of the largest facilities of this type in southwestern Russia, on the night from Sunday to Monday. The region's authorities did not say what was the cause. There were reports on social media that the fire could have started after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Two power plant units were taken out of use, which caused short-term power outages for local residents. The fire has already been extinguished. No one was injured, Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said on the Telegram channel.
According to Reuters, the Novocherkassk thermal power plant, controlled by the state energy company Gazprom, is one of the largest facilities of this type in southwestern Russia. It was put into operation in 1965.
Thermal power plant in Novocherkassk. Illustrative photo Shutterstock
Air raid and explosions near the power plant
On Monday morning, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced that 11 Ukrainian drones were destroyed in the airspace over the Rostov Oblast last night. According to media in Kiev, Russian air defense forces probably did not manage to shoot down all the drones, because residents of the Rostov-on-Don area reported on social networks about a drone strike and subsequent explosions near the power plant.
The authorities in Kiev have not yet responded to these reports.
The independent Russian-language website The Moscow Times wrote that there have been no previous attempts to attack the Novocherkassk power plant. However, in June last year there was a fire there, which led to major power outages in Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk. The Ministry's regional directorate for emergency situations announced that the roof of the sixth block of the power plant had caught fire. The fire covered an area of ​​200 square meters, wrote The Moscow Times.
A number of attacks, Ukrainian services confirm
In March, Ukrainian military intelligence and the Security Service of Ukraine confirmed that they had carried out attacks on refineries, among others. in Slavyansk in the Krasnodar Krai, Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov Oblast, as well as in Ryazan, Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region and Kirshay in the Leningrad Oblast. Russian and Ukrainian media also reported on airstrikes on refineries in Syzran and Novokujbyshevsk in the Samara region and a fire near a thermal power plant in St. Petersburg.
In the first half of the month, there were also reports of drone attacks on industrial facilities important for the Russian arms industry – the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant in Zheleznogorsk in the Kursk Oblast and the metallurgical plants of the Severstal concern in Cherepovets in the Vologda Oblast.
Processing capabilities of Russian refineries
Reuters estimates that the processing capacity of Russian refineries, put out of operation in the first quarter of 2024 as a result of drone attacks, was approximately 4.6 million tons of crude oil (an average of 370,500 barrels per day), which is equivalent to approximately 7%. processing capabilities of all plants in the country.
The US authorities have emphasized several times that they do not encourage Ukraine to carry out attacks on Russian territory or assist it in these operations. On March 22, the British daily Financial Times reported that Washington was putting pressure on Kiev, asking it to stop drone strikes against refineries. According to these reports, the United States is said to be concerned about a possible increase in oil prices on world markets.
Main photo source: Shutterstock