In Russia’s Omsk region, officers from the regional FSB and Interior Ministry departments brought administrative charges against several local residents who posted footage of a Ukrainian drone attack on the Omsk oil refinery. The regional government reported this.
According to the authorities, such recordings could have been used by Ukrainian structures to heighten panic in society and to help target and adjust subsequent drone strikes.
In video released by the FSB, a man and a woman say they posted online footage of drones flying toward the Omsk refinery, as well as information about an explosion at the facility on July 6.
The man shown in the security services’ recording said he “did not think this video would reach the Ukrainian armed forces.” The woman said she had not planned to publish the information and that she “deeply regrets it.”
On July 1, the Omsk region’s anti-terrorism commission banned the dissemination of information about the repelling of drone attacks. Violating that ban carries a fine of up to 30,000 rubles under Article 63.3 of the Omsk Region’s administrative offenses code.
Irina Rusnak, an official spokesperson for the Omsk FSB directorate, told RBC that so far the security services have drawn up two reports over filming the drones. She said officers are continuing to search for other people who posted videos of the attack on the refinery.
The drones attacked the Omsk refinery on July 6. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said that upgraded Fire Point drones were used in the strike. At the time, he wrote that “Siberia is now also within reach of Ukrainian precision.”