OMSK (Realist English). The strike on the Omsk oil refinery on July 6 raised not only questions about how Ukrainian drones managed to cover nearly 2,500 km, but also speculation about possible Azerbaijani involvement. Bloggers claimed that the drones could have launched not from Ukrainian territory, but from Azerbaijan, flying over the Caspian Sea.
Bloggers’ Theory: ‘Offended Revenge’ for Kremenchug
One of the first to advance this theory was military correspondent Timofey Yermakov, who suggested that “such actions on Baku’s part could be a response to the strike on the Kremenchug refinery.” The Kremenchug refinery was wholly owned by Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company SOCAR.
His channel “Blue Beard” elaborated: “It is quite possible that [the Azerbaijanis] are taking revenge for the destroyed Kremenchug refinery… as well as the systematic destruction of their petrol stations.”
According to the blogger, this could be a response to strikes on petrol stations of the Azerbaijani company on Ukrainian territory. “Incidentally, Russia’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mikhail Yevdokimov, was recently summoned to the republic’s Foreign Ministry and handed a note of protest over a drone strike on a SOCAR petrol station in Mykolaiv region on the evening of July 5,” Yermakov wrote.
The Strike on SOCAR: Three ‘Shaheds’ and an Explosion at a Petrol Station
On the evening of July 5, a SOCAR petrol station located in the village of Nechayane, Mykolaiv region, was attacked by three Shahed-type drones. The strike caused an explosion. SOCAR Energy Ukraine confirmed the attack and said work had begun to restore the station. There were no casualties, as employees were in shelters.
This is not the first strike on SOCAR assets in Ukraine. Last summer, two of the company’s petrol stations in Zhytomyr region suffered serious damage, and on the night of August 8, Russian forces attacked a SOCAR oil depot in Odesa region, causing a fire and seriously injuring four people.
Diplomatic Scandal: Note of Protest in Baku
On July 6, Russia’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mikhail Yevdokimov, was summoned to the republic’s Foreign Ministry. He was handed a note of protest over the attack on the SOCAR petrol station in Mykolaiv region. During the meeting, the Azerbaijani side lodged a firm protest.
Baku stressed that this was not the first such incident. Earlier, strikes had been carried out on a gas distribution compressor station and an oil depot of SOCAR in Odesa, causing significant material damage and injuring company employees. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry noted that “the continuation of such incidents indicates the targeted nature of the attacks.”
In addition, the Azerbaijani side drew attention to damage to the buildings of Azerbaijan’s embassy in Kyiv and its honorary consulate in Kharkiv as a result of a series of airstrikes. Baku called on Moscow to conduct a comprehensive investigation into all cases and to comply with its international obligations to protect civilian infrastructure and diplomatic missions.
The Attack on the Omsk Refinery
The strike on the Omsk refinery itself was a landmark event. The plant, owned by Gazprom Neft, is Russia’s largest, with a refining capacity of about 21–22 million tonnes of oil per year. Until then, it had remained one of the few major refining facilities not yet attacked by Ukrainian drones.
Omsk region Governor Vitaly Khotsenko initially reported only that “several drones had managed to reach the northern industrial hub of Omsk,” but later acknowledged the attack on the refinery.
The Ukrainian General Staff stated that Special Operations Forces had struck the ELOC-AVT-11 primary oil refining unit with a capacity of 8.4 million tonnes per year. According to OSINT analysts, the attack used FP-1 strike drones with modified wings, covering about 2,500 km.
Baku’s diplomatic démarche, following the strike on the SOCAR petrol station, points to growing tensions in Russian-Azerbaijani relations amid systematic strikes on assets of the Azerbaijani state company in Ukraine.
No official statements have been made by Baku regarding the theory of drones flying over the Caspian.
