For more than four years, the inhabitants of Omsk, a Siberian city more than 2,250 kilometers east of Moscow, have watched the war against Ukraine from afar. This week they got a close-up view that has left many in shock.Omsk was the target of Ukrainian air strikes on July 6, the first time the city has been targeted since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.The attack on an Omsk oil refinery, the largest in Russia, was the furthest strike from the Ukrainian front line -- in a city which local media had repeatedly stated was safe from attack.The first explosions were heard at 3:15 p.m. local time on July 6, on two streets where the refinery’s main processing facilities are located.'The House Shook'"There was such a loud bang that I thought the balcony windows were going to shatter. At first, my son and I huddled in the doorway, but the explosions didn't stop,” one local mother said. “It went on for more than an hour.”
The woman lives near to the city’s industrial zone. Like other people interviewed for this article, she cannot be named for safety reasons. RFE/RL is designated an “undesirable organization” by the Russian authorities, making it a criminal offense to speak to RFE/RL journalists.“With every new blast, the house literally shook. The most terrifying thing is that you see one black column of smoke outside the window, then another, but you have absolutely no idea what’s going on,” she said.“The emergency sirens were silent. The mobile Internet started to freeze up. It felt like being completely cut off under the bombs."Only after one hour did this resident, and others, receive a curt text message from local emergency services informing them of a “drone alert” in the city. This was followed by cellphone networks warning of possible service disruptions.Meanwhile, the huge plume of smoke was visible across the city.“The smoke hung over the city from 3:30 p.m. I saw it from outside the House of Tourism, right in the city center, which is a completely different district. My friend saw the black cloud from the airport, on the opposite bank of the Irtysh River,” a male resident said.There were no reports of casualties in the attack, part of Ukraine's ongoing offensive against Russia's oil industry -- which generates vital revenues for the country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
