Ukraine has stepped up its assaults on oil and gasoline amenities in Russia, with one strike hitting the foremost Orenburg gasoline processing plant in southern Russia on October 19, 2025. However a picture of firefighters battling a large blaze shared on-line was actually taken greater than a 12 months in the past within the Kursk area.
“Fireplace at Russia’s gasoline processing plant following Ukraine’s drone assault on October 19, 2025,” reads a Thai-language Fb submit revealed on the day.
A picture connected to it — shared on a web page with over 4,600 followers — exhibits a number of firefighters battling a large blaze.
Screenshot of the false submit, taken on October 24, 2025
The Orenburg gasoline processing plant, run by Russia’s Gazprom, was compelled to cease refining gasoline from neighbouring Kazakhstan’s massive oil and gasoline subject, in accordance with Kazakh authorities, after being hit by a Ukrainian drone on October 19 (archived hyperlink).
Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure in current weeks left 1000’s with out electrical energy, whereas Ukraine intensified its assault on Russia’s western border areas, in addition to its oil and gasoline amenities, in return (archived hyperlink).
The picture has additionally been shared alongside related claims in English, Chinese language and Persian.
Nevertheless it was taken in Russia’s Kursk area in early 2024.
A mixture of reverse picture and key phrase searches on Google led to a video displaying the identical scene on the seventh-second mark uploaded to The Telegraph’s YouTube channel on February 15, 2024 (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot comparability of the false submit (left) and The Telegraph’s YouTube video (proper)
The clip — titled “Ukrainian drone strike hits Russian oil depot in Kursk” — exhibits flames erupting from the constructing as thick black smoke billows into the sky.
AFP distributed the identical visible as a body from a video shared on Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt’s official Telegram account on February 15 (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot comparability of the false submit (left) and the picture credited to the federal government of Kursk distributed by AFP (proper)
Its caption says it exhibits firefighters working to extinguish a fireplace after “a night-time Ukrainian drone assault set ablaze a Russian oil depot within the Kursk area”.
Extra of AFP’s fact-check stories on the Russia-Ukraine warfare will be discovered right here.
