An overnight Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in the city of Yaroslavl northeast of Moscow, Yaroslavl region Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said Thursday.
“There’s damage to the oil refinery,” Yevrayev wrote in a post on Telegram, referring to the Slavneft-Yanos refinery, which is jointly controlled by Rosneft and Gazprom.
Ukraine’s military has previously claimed attacks on Slavneft-Yanos, saying it provides fuel and lubricants for the Russian military. Slavneft-Yanos has a crude processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, or 15 million metric tons per year.
Governor Yevrayev reported no casualties and said the refinery fire was fully extinguished by Thursday morning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strike on Slavneft-Yanos and reported damage to three Russian transport aircraft and three helicopters in a separate attack on a military airfield in the southern Rostov region.
Rostov region Governor Yury Slyusar said an overnight air barrage cut power to four districts in the regional capital Rostov-on-Don, where around two-fifths of the city’s residents live. No one was hurt in the strikes, he added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 641 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Russia’s Central Election Commission, which is running parliamentary and regional elections this weekend, said one of its members was killed in a drone attack in the occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia earlier on Tuesday.
In Kyiv, authorities said a large-scale Russian attack on the city overnight wounded at least 16 people. Several others were reported injured in separate attacks across Ukraine.
Ukraine’s latest attacks targeting Russian oil refineries came despite an announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier in the week that Moscow and Kyiv allegedly agreed to pause such attacks. The Russian military has also continued to strike Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Trump has sought to blame the surging cost of diesel in the United States on Ukrainian strikes against Russian fuel production facilities and supply lines. While Ukraine’s attacks have put pressure on gasoline and diesel prices both inside Russia and globally, analysts broadly agree that the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is the leading cause of current disruptions in energy markets.
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