In This Russian City, It's Literally Raining Oil

In the movies, it rains oil when the gruff but lovable prospector hits a gusher, sending a geyser of crude high up into the sky. In Russia, it rains oil after a drone strike on a refinery and export facility burns for days, forming clouds of the black stuff.

The city — town, really — is Tuapse, a Black Sea resort and oil hub of about 60,000 people. And they're covered in oil.

It was easy to ignore last Thursday's reports that Ukraine hit the Tuapse oil refinery with drones. The resulting fire was impressive, but it was also extinguished by Russian crews in fairly short order. It seemed like just another of Kyiv's many strikes in its campaign against Russia's energy sector.

The campaign began in earnest last summer, following a year-long systematic campaign to whittle down Russian air defenses. Back in January, I noted that the campaign wasn't doing enough harm to materially affect the outcome of the war.

"While Ukraine's War Against Oil has complicated Russian logistics and planning — not to mention having to budget scarce money, skilled labor, and parts to unscheduled repairs — the attacks seem to lack the systematic focus needed to put a meaningful dent in Russian output or distribution," I wrote in a Thursday Essay.

Whether by luck or design, Tuapse looks serious.

Shortly after Thursday's fire was extinguished, Ukraine hit the Tuapse facility for hours on Sunday night and into Monday morning. Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert Brovdi confirmed the strikes targeted the Rosneft refinery, specifically hitting storage tanks, the tank farm area, and the export facility.

It's Thursday, and Sunday's fires are only partly contained. The smoke is visible from space. Hell, it might be visible from my deck.

This is freaking insane to grasp: the smoke plume from the burning Tuapse oil refinery storage facility, after two consecutive Ukrainian strikes, is now more than 300 km long and can be seen from Stavropol. Image by NASA Worldview taken today, April 21. pic.twitter.com/JXZKoAoH9y
— Mark Krutov (@kromark) April 21, 2026

The view from the ground is even more disturbing.

Пожар в Туапсе - дорога Краснодар - Сочи. Это какой-то караул. pic.twitter.com/evUfisOPxV
— Кубанская Народная Республика (@kuban_republic) April 21, 2026

Reuters reported Russian authorities saying that "products from the fire, mixed ‌with rainfall, had created a 'black coating' in areas around the terminal."

In other words, it's raining oil.

Grim photos from Russia's Black Sea region of Tuapse, where oil terminals hit by Ukrainian drones continue to burn. Locals report oil "raining" from the sky, officials warn people to stay inside.
(source: https://t.co/1ZZ6aZNMgm; https://t.co/ceirRrclNS; https://t.co/bY9EiwEpVP) https://t.co/HoqT84Or35 pic.twitter.com/ZKKcxl9GEE
— Mike Eckel (@Mike_Eckel) April 23, 2026

There's no mandatory evacuation order, but an unknown number of people left Tuapse voluntarily, complaining of headaches, skin irritation, poor air quality, and more. Ecologically, this looks like a real mess.

Economically, too.

Tuapse is responsible for between 5-10% of Russian oil exports, or 240,000 barrels per day. Both the refinery and the port facility have been shut down for a week, and they're still burning.

Black Sea tankers were diverted to other ports, and the loss of Tuapse jams up Russia's crude oil flows, too. The complex's refining units appear less directly affected than the storage and export facilities, but since they're all part of an integrated unit, the refinery is likely offline until storage repairs are complete or Tuapse's refined output can be redirected elsewhere. But first, the rest of the fires must be put out.

It's a huge mess and not just because it's raining oil.

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