Vantor satellite image shows several oil storage tanks on fire with thick black smoke drifting south over the Black Sea at the Tuapse oil refinery on April 16, 2026. (Satellite image (c) 2026 Vantor)
Andrew Chakhoyan
Toxic rain is falling on Tuapse — just 75 miles from Vladimir Putin's summer residence in Sochi — coating cars and streets in oily grime. A once-picturesque Black Sea resort town is now choking on the fallout of a war that has come home to Russia.
Four times in a span of two weeks, Ukrainian drones lit up the local oil refinery and export terminal, laying bare the weakness of Russian air defenses. Clouds of smoke so vast that they were visible from space.
As long-range hits were gathering pace, the Russian president vanished. Ten straight days without a public appearance. Then on April 28, the self-styled strongman resurfaced and got on the phone with Donald Trump to beg for a three-day ceasefire to save his Victory Day parade.
