Zelenskyy says Russia deliberately struck SOCAR facility in Odesa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of a deliberate missile strike on the Azerbaijani oil giant SOCAR’s oil depot in Odesa.

“It was a deliberate Russian strike on an energy facility in Odesa that belongs to an Azerbaijani company. In other words, it is a strike against our relations and against energy independence,” he wrote on his Telegram channel, Caliber.Az reports.

The latest incident occurred overnight on August 17-18, when Russian forces launched a barrage of Shahed-type drones—often classified as loitering munitions or kamikaze drones—targeting the SOCAR oil depot near Orlivka in Odesa. Local reports and eyewitness accounts described multiple explosions, resulting in fires at the depot and nearby infrastructure, including a Nova Poshta terminal and additional SOCAR fuel terminals.

This strike is part of a broader series of Russian attacks on Azerbaijan-linked facilities in Ukraine, which analysts describe as deliberate and politically motivated.

On August 8, Russian drones hit a SOCAR oil depot in the Odesa region, causing a fire and damaging a diesel pipeline. Four SOCAR employees were reported injured.

In early August, Russian forces targeted a gas compressor station near Orlivka, part of the Trans-Balkan pipeline that delivers imported Azerbaijani and U.S. gas, disrupting a vital energy corridor.

On July 6, explosions in Berezina, Zhytomyr region, seriously damaged two SOCAR-owned gas stations, with local authorities suspecting that Russian sabotage groups were involved.

By Khagan Isayev