Europe
Ukraine claims drone attack on Russia’s Orenburg helium facility
Bloomberg News
August 12, 2025
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for a bilateral meeting with the German Chancellor on the sidelines of the 61st Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Sven Hoppe/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Ukraine claimed a strike on a key helium plant in Russia amid intensified attacks on energy infrastructure this month.
Ukrainian military intelligence drones struck the plant located close to Orenburg, at some 746 miles from the nation’s border with Russia, according to a Ukrainian official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. The facility produces a critical component for missiles, space and aviation industries, said the official, who didn’t give more details on possible damage.
It wasn’t possible to independently verify Ukraine’s claims, and Gazprom PJSC, owner of the facility, didn’t immediately reply to a request for a comment.
Since the start of August, Ukraine has launched a series of drone attacks on Russia’s energy facilities, with operations at three oil refineries being disrupted in response to recent barrages from Moscow. Russian and Ukrainian military forces have been trading airstrikes ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterpart Vladimir Putin scheduled for this Friday.
The Orenburg plant has annual capacity to process 15 billion cubic meters of gas and until 2021 was the only major facility to produce helium in Russia. Back then, Gazprom launched the first of three helium units at its new Amur gas processing plant in Russia’s Far East, with the second unit commissioned in 2023. Design gas-processing capacity of the Amur facility is 42 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
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