In the early hours of November 10, 2025, the strategic Russian port city of Tuapse in Krasnodar Krai once again found itself under attack, as Ukrainian naval drones targeted its vital oil infrastructure. The strike, which lasted through the night and triggered nearly eight hours of drone alerts, marked the latest escalation in Ukraine’s campaign to disrupt Russia’s energy exports and maritime operations along the Black Sea coast.
According to reporting by Astra and corroborated by several Ukrainian Telegram channels, the attack began overnight when multiple unmanned surface vessels—commonly known as naval drones—breached Tuapse’s harbor defenses. Eyewitness video published by Supernova+ captured a powerful nighttime explosion, while a subsequent clip shared by Exilenova+ depicted flames licking the sky in the port area. In the background, a woman could be heard exclaiming, "The ship is on fire." Dnipro Osint, an open-source intelligence group, later identified the likely impact site as pier 167, where a sea drone reportedly detonated, damaging both port infrastructure and at least one nearby vessel.
Residents of Tuapse described a tense night punctuated by explosions and the ever-present wail of drone alerts. The threat level remained high until 8:00 a.m. Moscow time, when Sergei Boiko, head of the Tuapse municipal district, announced that the danger had passed. But even as the all-clear sounded, the aftermath was plain to see: a ship ablaze, damaged piers, and the port’s critical oil terminal left smoldering.
Russian officials initially confirmed the drone boat attack, with Boiko stating in an official message that the port had been targeted by unmanned surface vessels. However, as the morning wore on, the official line began to shift. Boiko edited his statement, removing all references to drone boats, though the original version persisted on the Telegram channel of the Krasnodar Krai operations headquarters. Later, the same headquarters claimed that four sea drones had been neutralized near Tuapse, with one detonating close to the shoreline. The resulting shock wave, they said, damaged the windows on the second floor of a two-story building, a garage, and a boathouse—but, notably, there were no casualties.
The Russian Ministry of Defence also weighed in, asserting that its air defense systems had intercepted or downed a total of 71 drones overnight, including seven over the Black Sea. While these figures could not be independently verified, the ministry specifically noted that four drones were neutralized near Tuapse. One of the unmanned boats detonated near the coastline, causing property damage but, again, no reported injuries. Emergency services responded quickly to the scene, working to contain the fires and assess the full extent of the destruction.
Speaking to the press, Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council’s Joint Forces Operation Center, confirmed the attack and the resulting fire at the port. "There was a fire in the port of Tuapse at night," Kovalenko stated. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) later elaborated, saying the coordinated strike had targeted the oil terminal, where at least three vessels with semi-shadow status were being loaded at the time. Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk underscored the operation’s significance, declaring that the damage inflicted would have lasting effects on Russia’s oil exports and maritime confidence. "The damage to such strategic facilities will affect not only crude oil exports but also companies’ confidence in Russian ports," Pletenchuk emphasized.
This was not the first time Tuapse found itself in the crosshairs. Just over a week earlier, on November 2, Ukrainian drones had struck the same port, igniting a tanker and causing extensive damage to the RN-Tuapse Oil Refinery—a facility with a production capacity of 240,000 barrels per day. According to Reuters and the Kyiv Independent, five drone strikes during that earlier operation rendered at least four piers inoperable, forced the suspension of fuel exports, and left several port buildings and two foreign vessels damaged. Satellite data from NASA and open-source video analysis confirmed the magnitude of the blast, which also caused an oil spill stretching several kilometers from the port terminal.
The consequences of these repeated strikes have been profound. The RN-Tuapse Oil Refinery, controlled by Rosneft, halted crude processing after the November 2 attack, and industry sources reported that the facility’s planned ramp-up of oil product exports for November had been derailed. The refinery is a linchpin in Russia’s export network, producing naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gas oil, and high-sulfur diesel, with major shipments bound for markets in China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Turkey. The port’s suspension of operations has rippled outward, prompting Russian Railways to extend restrictions on cargo deliveries to Tuapse until at least November 13. As a result, the economic and logistical impact of Ukraine’s drone campaign is being felt well beyond the immediate blast zone.
For Russia, the attacks have presented both a practical and a public relations challenge. The initial transparency from local officials—who openly acknowledged the drone strikes—quickly gave way to a more cautious narrative, with references to unmanned boats scrubbed from statements and the focus shifted to the supposed success of air defenses. Yet, as the damage to the port’s infrastructure became impossible to ignore, the official messaging struggled to keep pace with on-the-ground realities documented by residents, journalists, and independent analysts alike.
Ukraine, for its part, has made no secret of its intent to target Russian energy infrastructure. The use of naval drones—relatively low-cost, remotely operated vessels packed with explosives—has emerged as a potent tool in Kyiv’s asymmetric warfare strategy. By striking at the heart of Russia’s export capabilities, Ukraine aims not only to disrupt logistics and supply chains but also to undermine confidence in the security of Russian ports. The attacks on Tuapse, with their dramatic visuals and tangible economic fallout, have sent a clear message to both Moscow and the wider world.
As the war grinds on, the battle for control of the Black Sea and its vital ports shows no sign of abating. The events of November 10 underscore the evolving nature of modern conflict, where drones and digital information channels can reshape the battlefield as surely as tanks and artillery. For the residents of Tuapse, the night of fire and explosions may have ended with an official all-clear, but the reverberations—economic, strategic, and psychological—are likely to persist for months to come.
