Fire breaks out at Russian oil refinery near Ukrainian border

A Fire broke out on Wednesday at an oil refinery in Russia's southern Rostov region near the border with Ukraine and was later extinguished, state media reported, citing the emergencies ministry.

"In Rostov Region, Novoshakhtinsk city...  a message was received at 10:24am Moscow time about a Fire on the territory of an oil products processing plant," the ministry said.

The Fire broke out over an area of about 100 square metres and was extinguished around an hour later, Interfax news agency reported, adding that the small refinery belonged to a company called Resource LLC.

It cited the emergency service as saying that according to preliminary information, the blaze was caused by a "violation of technological process".

Novoshakhtinsk is about 9 km (6 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Another refinery in Novoshakhtinsk was struck by two drones last June, in what the plant called "terrorist actions from the western border", a reference to Ukraine.

Wednesday's Fire was the second in two days to hit a Russian refinery, following an incident on Tuesday at a Lukoil unit in Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow.

Reuters