Fire engulfs Yug Rusi oil terminal in Rostov-on-Don after suspected drone strike

Over the night of Oct. 9-10, a major fire broke out at the Yug Rusi oil-loading terminal in Rostov-on-Don's Zheleznodorozhny district, after what appears to be a drone strike. Video posted on Telegram and highlighted by Exilenova+ displayed towering flames and thick smoke, and an OSINT analyst from ASTRA matched the imagery to the terminal that handles exports from the Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery. Russian regional officials acknowledged the blaze and said air defenses were active, though they did not confirm the extent of damage, and Ukrainian military spokespeople have not taken credit.

The same monitoring sources reported that a residential building in the Donskaya Sloboda area also suffered damage, though the cause remains unclear. The terminal, separate from the refinery's main processing plant, can handle up to 3.5 million metric tons of petroleum products annually. This incident follows a September strike on the Novoshakhtinsk refinery that also sparked a fire, part of a broader Ukrainian campaign targeting Russian fuel infrastructure. U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Ukraine to pause such attacks, while President Zelensky says any halt must be reciprocal.