Satellite images showed smoke continuing to rise from Russia’s Samara oil facility for the tenth consecutive day, as fire hotspots shifted between tank clusters inside the site. This coincided with Ukrainian security and military authorities announcing that dozens of strategic tanks had been destroyed in the Samara and Volgograd regions since the beginning of October 2026.
The fires come amid an expansion in reciprocal attacks on energy facilities by Russia and Ukraine, while the United States pushes for an urgent settlement to ease the situation and end the war. A series of satellite images taken between 5 and 12 October indicates that the fire continued and damage inside the Samara facility expanded.
Satellite images document continuing fires in Samara
An image taken on 5 October showed limited columns of smoke rising from oil depots and tanks at the facility, three days after it was attacked. Later images, however, documented continuing destruction and shifts in the locations of fire hotspots inside the complex. An image dated 8 October showed a huge fire and a dense cloud of black smoke rising from the eastern cluster of targeted tanks.
Images taken on 10 and 11 October then showed the flames spreading to the northern and eastern clusters, while smoke covered large parts of the facility and surrounding areas as petroleum products burned. A more recent image, taken on 12 October, confirmed that fires were still burning inside the oil complex.
The image showed smoke continuing to rise from two main hotspots, one in the centre of the facility and the other in its eastern section. Ukraine’s Security Service had announced on 2 October that it had carried out strikes, together with other components of the Ukrainian Defence Forces, against oil facilities in Russia’s Samara and Volgograd regions.
The service said the targets included the Samara linear production and distribution station, the Samara-1 and Samara-2 pumping stations, and the Volgograd oil refinery. The Ukrainian announcement coincided with footage from the ground showing flames and thick smoke rising from the Samara energy station. That same night, Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had intercepted and shot down drones over the region.
On 7 October, footage from the ground documented a major new fire breaking out above the facility, with columns of black smoke rising. The footage matched a satellite image taken the following day, as local reports said roads around the transport and storage terminal had been closed.
Samara facility’s role in oil storage and exports
The Samara terminal receives, stores and blends oil, supplied through major pipelines from Tatarstan, western Siberia and other Russian oil-producing regions. The facility also prepares Russia’s Urals blend for export.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the terminal also helps meet the needs of the Russian armed forces. In a separate incident, a fire broke out at an oil-products handling terminal in the Russian city of Rostov during a night-time attack between 9 and 10 October. The regional governor confirmed that a fire had broken out in the city during the attack.
Extensive damage at Rostov oil terminal
An analysis of circulating video footage identified the fire’s location as the Yug Rossi terminal, officially known in documents as the oil-products terminal of the Novoshakhtinsk refinery. Comparing satellite images made it possible to track the facility’s condition before and after the attack and assess the extent of damage to its tanks.
Images taken by Planet on 9 October showed the facility in its normal condition hours before the attack, with the oil tanks and infrastructure alongside the river appearing intact. By contrast, an image dated 11 October documented a huge fire inside the site, with thick columns of black smoke covering large areas of it.
After the smoke cleared and the fire was extinguished, a more recent image taken on 12 October revealed that several oil tanks had been charred and severely damaged. The comparison shows the site before the attack, the subsequent spread of the fire and the visible damage after it was extinguished. These developments coincided with US calls to end the war.
Trump calls for a settlement to end the war
US President Donald Trump said on Monday evening that the war in Ukraine was a “disaster” requiring a settlement, referring to violations of the ceasefire by both Russia and Ukraine. In remarks to reporters, Trump added that Moscow and Kyiv wanted to reach an agreement but did not know how to achieve it.
He said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to reach an agreement, but added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also needed to be persuaded to agree to one.
The US president stressed that Zelenskyy should focus on reaching an agreement to end the war rather than discussing the diesel deal reached by Washington and Moscow. This marked a shift from a US policy that, during the nearly five-year Russian-Ukrainian war, had sought to impose sanctions on Moscow and limit its energy revenues.
Trump announced an agreement with Putin to supply large quantities of Russian diesel to US and global markets, promoting it as a solution to higher fuel prices resulting from the US war on Iran, particularly ahead of the midterm elections scheduled for next month.
Ukraine, by contrast, fears that the announcement will weaken its negotiating position and provide Russia with political and financial support that could help it prolong the war.
