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Ukraine Strikes Cut Russia’s Oil Refining by 30%World
Ukrainian drone attacks have hit nine of Russia’s 35 major refineries, cutting about a third of its oil processing capacity and deepening fuel shortages.
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Ukraine’s renewed drone campaign against Russian oil refineries has cut about 30 percent of Russia’s oil refining capacity, according to two industry sources cited by Reuters, in the sharpest blow yet to Moscow’s fuel sector since the attacks stepped up late last month.
The strikes have disrupted operations and caused emergency situations at nine of Russia’s 35 major refineries over the past week, the sources said. The plants hit since late October, including three large facilities in central Russia, have a combined nameplate capacity of around 300,000 metric tons of crude a day, or about 2.2 million barrels, against Russia’s total primary refining capacity of roughly 930,000 tons a day.
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That headline figure does not translate directly into lost output, because refineries rarely run at full capacity. The sources estimated that the actual fall in crude processing could reach up to 200,000 tons a day. At the end of October, Russian refineries were processing about 700,000 tons, or five million barrels, of crude daily.
Key plants hit across central Russia
Among the facilities affected are refineries in Ryazan, Yaroslavl and the Volga region. On Monday, a Ukrainian drone struck the Kirishi refinery, Russia’s second largest, in an overnight attack that set the plant on fire, the governor of the Leningrad region said, adding that one woman had been killed in the attack.
Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russian refineries since the end of October, when a ceasefire on attacks against energy facilities announced by US President Donald Trump failed to take hold. Kyiv has said it is continuing to target assets linked to Russia’s oil sector, while Russia has kept up its own strikes on Ukraine’s power grid and cities.
The damage is adding to Moscow’s difficulties in keeping fuel supplies flowing at home. Russia has extended a temporary ban on exports of petrol, diesel and other fuels until 31 January 2027, and major energy companies have restricted domestic fuel sales as shortages bite in some regions.
The diplomatic fallout continued on Tuesday, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote in the Russian newspaper Kommersant that Ukraine was ignoring Mr Trump’s calls to stop striking energy targets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that Kyiv would keep hitting targets associated with Russia’s oil industry.
With winter approaching and both sides still trading blows against energy infrastructure, the refinery campaign has become one of the most consequential fronts of the war, hitting Russia’s revenues and its ability to supply its own motorists at the same time.
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