UKRAINE struck a Russian oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for a third time in less than two weeks, sending locals fleeing, officials said yesterday.

Tuapse has faced intensified strikes over the past weeks, including strikes on the oil refinery on April 20 and 16, leaving multi-day fires burning.

“This facility is involved in supplying the Russian Federation’s occupation army on Ukrainian territory,” the Ukrainian military said.

Videos shared by residents showed a large plume of smoke rising above the refinery, along with rainfall leaving a black film on surfaces.

Local authorities said large amounts of combustion byproducts had been released into the atmosphere and urged residents to limit time outdoors.

The two strikes earlier this month destroyed 24 oil storage tanks and damaged four others, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said yesterday.

People who live near the Tuapse refinery were being evacuated yesterday, Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev said, but he did not provide any details.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that its air defences had intercepted 186 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, annexed Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

In Belgorod on the border with Ukraine, three people were killed and three were wounded in a drone attack, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Russian drone attacks on Ukraine meanwhile killed three civilians and wounded five others, Ukrainian authorities said.

Two people were killed in the city of Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region and a 40-year-old man died while five others sustained injuries in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Another Russian attack on Konotop, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, knocked out the city’s power and water supply.