Ukrainian drones hit two Russian oil refineries and defence-linked plants overnight into 25 September

Why it matters

The strikes hit two of Russia's larger oil refineries and several facilities linked to weapons production, extending the Ukrainian campaign against Russian energy and defence infrastructure deeper into Russian territory. Confirmation by Russian regional governors made the attacks difficult to deny, while confirmation by the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces and acknowledgment by President Zelensky signalled an officially claimed operation. The Iskra plant in Ulyanovsk, part of the Almaz-Antey air-defence concern, supplies microelectronics used in Russian missile programmes; damage there has implications for weapons production as well as for the broader Ukrainian effort to degrade the military-industrial base feeding the war.

What happened

On the night of 24–25 September 2026, Ukrainian drones struck a series of Russian industrial targets far from the front line. In Perm Krai, drones hit the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez (PNOS) oil refinery, one of Russia's largest, with a capacity of more than 13 million tonnes of oil per year; a fire broke out at the site, and preliminary reports indicated that the AVT-5 primary processing unit was damaged. Perm Krai governor Dmitry Makhonin confirmed the strike on an industrial facility; an initial statement reported no casualties, while a later update reported one man killed by shrapnel and 29 drones allegedly shot down over the region.

In Rostov Oblast, the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery — the only refinery in the region and a key fuel supplier in southern Russia — was hit and temporarily suspended operations; governor Yuri Slyusar confirmed the damage. Near Novoshakhtinsk, Ukrainian forces also struck radar stations 64L6 Gamma-S1 and 39N6 Kasta-2E2 used by Russian air defence, according to the General Staff. Russian authorities reported about 50 drones destroyed over Rostov Oblast during the night.

In Ulyanovsk, drones hit the Zavod Iskra research-and-production enterprise, part of the Almaz-Antey VKO concern and a producer of semiconductor devices, microwave components and microelectronics for Russian missile programmes and air-defence systems. Governor Alexei Russkikh confirmed the attack, reported damage to industrial and civilian infrastructure, and said eight people were injured.

In Voronezh Oblast, the Voronezhsintezkauchuk synthetic-rubber and thermoplastic-elastomer plant (fully owned by Sibur since 2012, and according to the General Staff involved in solid rocket-fuel production including for Iskander missiles) was among the targets. Governor Alexander Gusev said 88 drones were intercepted overnight over Voronezh and six districts; he reported damage to houses, cars and industrial buildings from drone debris, and the number of injured was given as four in one update and 13 (including a six-year-old child) in a later update.

Russia's Ministry of Defence claimed 592 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over regions including Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Rostov, Tver, Tula, Samara and Smolensk oblasts, the Moscow region, Krasnodar Krai, Perm Krai, Udmurtia, Tatarstan, occupied Crimea and the Black Sea. Ukraine's General Staff confirmed strikes on the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez and Novoshakhtinsk refineries; President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly acknowledged attacks on refineries in Perm and on a radar station in Rostov Oblast, and separately confirmed a strike on the Iskra defence plant in Ulyanovsk.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian sources centre the strikes on energy and military-industrial infrastructure, presenting them as part of a deliberate, asymmetric campaign that is degrading Russian refining capacity and weapons output. Ukrainian coverage prominently features the General Staff's confirmation, President Zelensky's public acknowledgment, and reporting on each of the named facilities, casting the operations as officially claimed and successful. Ukrainian reporting also foregrounds the negotiations context: Zelensky is quoted as saying Ukraine is ready to work on de-escalation, including stopping strikes on Russian energy and oil refineries if Russia does the same, and warning that strikes will continue in the absence of an agreement.

How international sources describe it

The international source in this set — an English-language Azerbaijani news agency — reports the Perm refinery strike factually and narrowly, focusing on the facility's operational halt without broader context. Compared with Ukrainian coverage, international framing in the supplied material gives less attention to the wider pattern of refinery shutdowns across Russia, the weapons-production angle, or the diplomatic backdrop involving Washington.

Where reporting differs

Sources disagree on several factual points. The capacity of the Novoshakhtinsk refinery is reported as about 5 million tonnes of oil per year (≈100,000 barrels per day), 5.6 million tonnes per year, and up to 7.5 million tonnes per year in earlier estimates. The number of people injured in Voronezh Oblast is given as four by Governor Gusev in one update and 13 (including a six-year-old child) in a later update. One source reported a fatality in Perm from shrapnel wounds, while Makhonin's earlier statement said there were no casualties. The target in Ulyanovsk is identified as the Iskra plant by ASTRA, Exilenova+ and official confirmation, while one channel (Supernova+) points to an Ozon logistics centre as the target.

Background

Both the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez and Novoshakhtinsk refineries had been hit before in earlier Ukrainian drone attacks in August 2026; the Perm facility was struck on 21 August, when a primary atmospheric-vacuum distillation unit was likely damaged, and Novoshakhtinsk halted work at the end of August after a previous drone attack. According to the supplied facts, since the start of 2026 Ukrainian Defence Forces have struck Russian oil refineries more than 70 times and disabled several dozen, with six large refineries stopping for repairs in August alone. Other recent refinery shutdowns named in the material include the Moscow refinery (Gazprom Neft) on 20 September, Yaroslavnefteorgsintez on 17 September, Syzran and Saratov (Rosneft) on 11 and 15 September, and the Ryazan refinery on 6 September. According to EA Analytics and the IEA, Russian oil refining has fallen to its lowest level in more than 20 years, with Reuters-cited estimates indicating volumes reduced by about a third to roughly 4 million barrels per day, leading to fuel shortages and export restrictions. On 20 September, US President Donald Trump reportedly urged President Zelensky during a phone call to stop strikes on Russian refineries, hours after a large Ukrainian attack on a Moscow refinery; Zelensky subsequently said Ukraine would continue retaliatory strikes in the absence of an agreement.