“The Defense Forces of Ukraine delivered a strike at” the refinery leading to explosions and fire, Ukraine’s General Staff said on social media. “Results of the strike are being checked.”
Ukraine’s claim could not be independently verified.
The refinery is owned by Surgutneftegas and is one of Russia’s largest, with an annual processing capacity of over 20 million tons. It’s located about 100 kilometers southeast of St. Petersburg and more than 800 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border.
The city of Kirishi was targeted with seven drones overnight, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said on Telegram. He reported a fire in an industrial zone but didn’t specify what was targeted.
Kinef was last attacked on Sept. 14, and halted a primary processing unit with a capacity of around 150,000 barrels per day. Repair work was estimated to take about a month, people familiar with situation said at the time.
Ukraine has stepped up assaults on Russian refineries since August as Kyiv seeks to curb energy revenues feeding the Kremlin’s war machine and limit fuel supplies to the front lines.
Read: Russia Running Out of Crude-Export Capacity Amid Drone Strikes
In the past two months, Ukraine has targeted at least 15 refineries across the European part of Russia. Some of the drone assaults succeeded, with Russian refinery runs falling below 5 million barrels a day, according to estimates from JPMorgan Chase & Co. That means about 500,000 barrels a day of processing have been curtailed, based on historic data.
That has in turn exacerbated a fuel crunch in Russia. The government in Moscow responded by imposing a ban on diesel exports for resellers until the end of this year, while a full ban on gasoline sales abroad was extended, also until end-2025.
Kinef supplies not only the domestic market but is also one of Russia’s key exporters. The country’s ability to divert its crude to the global market is also diminishing.
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