NASA satellite monitoring detected multiple fires at the Tsimbulova drone launch base in Russia’s Oryol region overnight Oct. 3 following Ukrainian drone strikes, AMK Mapping reported. The site is Russia’s largest drone launching facility and has expanded rapidly over the past two years.

The base launches Geran-2 drones and Geran-4 and Geran-5 jet drones. Earlier Ukrainian attacks caused minor damage, AMK Mapping said. OSINTtechnical reported that Sentinel-2 imagery also showed ground changes consistent with a possible strike Thursday night. President Volodymyr Zelensky had announced on Oct. 1 that Ukraine hit a drone launch and storage site in Oryol.

The latest attack follows Ukraine’s Oct. 2 strikes on the Samara oil pumping hub and Lukoil’s roughly 300,000 BPD Volgograd refinery. Before the crisis, Volgograd supplied almost 6% of Russia’s diesel output and 4% of its gasoline. President Donald Trump has urged Kyiv to curb refinery attacks, telling Zelensky, “You gotta take it easy on the refineries.” Vladimir Putin called a proposed mutual halt to attacks on Ukrainian shipping and Russian refineries “absurd.”