Examples of environmental harm in Ukraine | return to map

Name: Kremenchuck Oil Refinery
Location: Kremenchuck, Poltava Oblast

CEOBS database ID: 10375

Context

Kremenchuk Oil Refinery was Ukraine’s primary large refinery before February 2022. Its sprawling site covers around 12 km² and includes a thermal power plant. The refinery employed 3,000 people and, as it began operating in 1961, has significant legacy pollution. In recent years it had been operating at reduced capacity but grew in strategic importance after the closure of the Lysychansk Refinery in 2012.

Timeline of key incidents 

Between February 2022 and September 2023 eight discrete attacks have been reported at the refinery: the 2nd April, 24th April, 12th May, 18th June and 11th September 2022, and on the 16th February and 20th September 2023. The objects described in the first two attacks below went on to be damaged again during the subsequent attacks.

1st-2nd April 2022

The first missile attack on the refinery resulted in at least four large fires across the site and significant damage visible in five discrete locations. Many tanks storing unknown petroleum products were set alight and destroyed. The most notable blaze was at “Pat Kremenchuknaftoprodukt-servis”. At around 1.5 km this location was the closest facility to residential areas and fires at 13 large and multiple smaller tanks generated a large smoke plume visible from across the city of Kremenchuk. 

24th April 2022

The second attack reportedly involved nine long-range missiles. Fires from the attack generated a large smoke plume that rose above Kremenchuk; its glow was visible overnight and from space. The attack caused substantial damage to the thermal power plant, which provided energy to Kremenchuk. It was again attacked in June and September 2022, and in February and September of 2023. Workshops housing distillation columns – whose precise nature is unclear – were also damaged.

We are aware of further incidents after our September 2023 operational security cut-off. We are tracking these incidents and hope to update this documentation when appropriate.

Damage assessment  

Satellite-only damage assessments are challenging for complex sites like refineries, where intricate pipe networks can create visual objects and shadows that are difficult to interpret. In this respect our assessment should be viewed as preliminary. Nevertheless, our assessment indicates that damage is distributed across the site. Damage is visible to facilities including the power station, storage and transport components, distillation equipment, electrical substations and buildings whose purpose we have been unable to determine. At least 22 storage tanks have been destroyed or damaged, whilst damage is visible to pipelines in at least four locations. Some objects have been damaged on separate occasions, including a building that was part of a substation and which was damaged in both April and June 2022. 

Environmental harm assessment

The attacks at Kremenchuk have caused air and soil pollution, with the potential for contaminants to migrate into surface and ground waters. Given the diversity of substances used and produced by the refinery, it is impossible to precisely determine the pollutant releases. The composition of the chemicals released also depends on whether they were emitted by spills or combustion and whether they were transported in the air or by water.

We have identified at least 15 fires across the refinery complex. Smoke from petroleum products contains very high concentrations of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, nitrous acid, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, VOCs such as formaldehyde, and potentially dioxins, furans, hydrocarbons and PAHs. Most plumes were dark, meaning the particulate matter is likely to have included a high fraction of black carbon: a health and climate relevant aerosol.¹ Residents in Kremenchuk will have been exposed to the high concentrations of pollutants in the smoke. It should be noted that its population had increased by a third following an influx of internally displaced people. Deposition from smoke plumes onto cropland can also be a pollution pathway and lead to a secondary emission of air pollution through resuspension or soil-air exchange.

Petroleum products can be seen on the bare ground surrounding many of the damaged storage tanks. Chemicals spilled onto bare ground may migrate from the release site and towards the cropland adjacent to the refinery. 

Additional pollution risks are associated with particular facilities at the site; for example the damaged substation. Electrical transformers and capacitors have historically used insulating oil that contains polychlorinated biphenyls. PCBs are dangerous persistent organic pollutants that bioaccumulate and are highly toxic.² Fires involving PCB oils can be particularly dangerous if the compounds break down into the more toxic dibenzofurans and dibenzodioxins. 

Longer-term implications

The longer-term environmental consequences of the damage are, to some extent, contingent on the response actions already undertaken. The refinery is unoccupied territory so the management of environmental risks is possible, although more difficult because of the ongoing conflict. The kind of large-scale incident response that would be expected in peacetime was not possible.³ The status of ground-based data collection is unclear; however, satellite imagery reveals repairs to damaged buildings and the construction of new storage areas. Debris and waste from the site will require management and disposal in an environmentally sound manner.

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