Russia's Tyumen oil refinery has fully halted crude processing and fuel output since a late-July Ukrainian drone strike, two industry sources told Reuters on 28 July. The plant sits more than 2,000 kilometers from Ukraine, deep in western Siberia. How long the damaged gasoline production will take to repair remains unclear.
Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian fuel plants and depots has pushed rationing from Russian border regions all the way into Siberia, turni
Russia's Tyumen oil refinery has fully halted crude processing and fuel output since a late-July Ukrainian drone strike, two industry sources told Reuters on 28 July. The plant sits more than 2,000 kilometers from Ukraine, deep in western Siberia. How long the damaged gasoline production will take to repair remains unclear.
Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian fuel plants and depots has pushed rationing from Russian border regions all the way into Siberia, turning gasoline supply and oil revenue into pressure points on Moscow's war economy. Every refinery knocked offline trims the fuel and cash that sustain Russia's invasion, and Kyiv often keeps returning to the same targets faster than Moscow can rebuild them.
The plant stopped making fuel
RI-Invest, which owns the Tyumen refinery, shut down crude processing and all product output on 25 July, when the Ukrainian drones hit the facility, according to the two sources in a Reuters report carried by The Moscow Times. The drone strike that day damaged the plant's secondary units and set them on fire.
The blaze hit a diesel hydrotreating unit rated at 2.6 million tons a year. It also struck the combined high-octane gasoline complex, which pairs a catalytic reformer with an isomerization unit. Neither source could estimate how long the gasoline repairs would run, according to Reuters.
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A plant already patching an older fire
The same diesel hydrotreating unit spent last month under repair after a 6 June fire from internal causes. The gasoline complex was built under a license from the US firm UOP and started operating in 2018. The refinery's full capacity reaches 9 million tons a year, the sources said. In 2024 it processed 5.7 million tons of crude, turning out 0.5 million tons of gasoline and 2.8 million tons of diesel.
Drones over Siberia, far from any front
On 25 July, Tyumen Oblast Governor Alexander Moor confirmed the drone attack on the region and reported no casualties.
Ukrainian drones had already reached the same plant on 20 June. The lost output tightens a home fuel market that has run short since spring, as Kyiv escalated its campaign against oil-processing plants.
Tyumen Oblast is currently also bracing for major flooding as the Tura River rises.
Russia has reshaped its air war on Ukraine, tilting toward ballistic missiles and daytime strikes, Ukraine's Air Force said. Recovered missile debris suggests Moscow is struggling to accumulate all the weaponry its attacks require, even as its daily drone attacks continue unchanged.
Russia's aerial assault on Ukrainian cities has grown heavier through 2026, and ballistic missiles now account for a growing share of the missile threat.
Ballistic missiles crowd out cruise
Russia has reshaped its air war on Ukraine, tilting toward ballistic missiles and daytime strikes, Ukraine's Air Force said. Recovered missile debris suggests Moscow is struggling to accumulate all the weaponry its attacks require, even as its daily drone attacks continue unchanged.
Russia's aerial assault on Ukrainian cities has grown heavier through 2026, and ballistic missiles now account for a growing share of the missile threat.
Ballistic missiles crowd out cruise missiles
Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Russian forces now favor ballistic missiles over cruise missiles, NV reported. Over the past week, Russia launched more than 50 ballistic missiles, he said. Ihnat added that Moscow cannot build up all the weaponry its attacks demand.
"Debris found with markings three weeks, a month, or two months old — that is, missiles that just came off the assembly line — shows that they can't accumulate and scale everything up there, and that they do have a problem with this," Ihnat said.
Ihnat noted that Ukrainian long-range strikes are adding to Russia's difficulties. Ukraine's Defense Forces now hit not only oil refineries but also factories with unique technologies that make missile parts, he said.
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Strikes move into daylight
"The enemy seeks to achieve the effect of surprise, so that our Defense Forces have less time to prepare. When everyone gets used to ballistics flying at night — from 2:00 to 4:00 — by striking in the morning, the enemy tries to achieve certain goals precisely through surprise," Ihnat said.
The daily drone barrage grinds on
Russia's overall Shahed-drone tactic has not changed, Ihnat said. Its forces keep hitting Ukraine with Shahed drones — the Iranian-designed attack drones Moscow launches in swarms — every day and every night.
Overnight on 27 July, Russia sent 147 strike drones at Ukraine, including Shahed, Gerbera, and Italmas types plus Parodiya decoys. Air-raid alerts sounded across several oblasts. A Russian strike damaged homes and a shop in Dnipro, and an attack on Zaporizhzhia killed one person.
The parts of Russia that once felt too far away to worry about are now on Ukraine's strike map, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after a meeting with his top military commanders on 26 July. Kyiv will press ahead with its long-range campaign and has updated which sites to hit first, he added. The commanders did not reveal the targets themselves.
Russia built its war economy behind a rear it assumed no one could touch, and Ukraine's deep-strike campaign has spent ye
The parts of Russia that once felt too far away to worry about are now on Ukraine's strike map, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after a meeting with his top military commanders on 26 July. Kyiv will press ahead with its long-range campaign and has updated which sites to hit first, he added. The commanders did not reveal the targets themselves.
Russia built its war economy behind a rear it assumed no one could touch, and Ukraine's deep-strike campaign has spent years taking that assumption apart, region by region. The further Kyiv's drones travel, the harder it becomes for Moscow to call any refinery or warehouse safe, no matter how remote it is.
Kyiv's commanders sign off on the next phase
Zelenskyy convened Ukraine's military leadership to review the long-range strikes. He left with two decisions—keep the operations going and refresh the priority list.
Photos the President posted showed new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapatyi, acting Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara and Chief of the General Staff Ihor Skybiuk among those at the table. Kyiv chose the new priorities by one measure: how much each site damages Russia's ability to keep waging the war.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapatyi (center) and Chief of the General Staff Ihor Skybiuk (right) at the meeting, 26 July 2026. Photo: Zelenskyy/Telegram
Zelenskyy once again called the effort Ukraine's plan of "long-range sanctions," carried out along set priorities.
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Russia's depth stops being an advantage
Ukrainian strike distances now run past 3,000 km, Zelenskyy noted, saying Kyiv keeps building the range to reach further. For years, Russia's size kept its factories and fuel plants out of harm's way.
"The strategic depth of the rear, which for a long time was a Russian advantage, is now becoming a particular problem for Russia's political and military leadership," he said.
Most of Russia's air defense, he noted, sits bunched around Moscow, state residences, the Kerch Strait Bridge and St. Petersburg. Ukrainian drones, he added, have shown they can reach targets in the Urals, in Siberia and in other lands far from the capital.
Acting Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara at a meeting on Ukraine's long-range strikes, 26 July 2026. Photo: Zelenskyy/Telegram
What Ukraine has hit—and what it still targets
Since the plan began this year, Ukraine has run more than a thousand fire missions, striking oil sites, critical military production and key nodes of Russian logistics, Zelenskyy said. Several parallel deep- and mid-range campaigns run at once. They target:
oil and fuel sites in Russia and occupied territories
The point of all this pressure, Zelenskyy said, is to force Russia toward negotiations. He wants the strikes to make weapons components harder to build, pile up oil and economic losses, and, in his words, bring the war back to its "home harbor." Ukraine has handed Russia's leadership everything it needs to end the war on decent terms, he said, and its partners know what that takes.
"Our precision is working effectively to create conditions for real diplomacy," Zelenskyy said.
Recent long-range hits
Several notable long-range strikes occurred in the days before the meeting. On 24 July, an FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile hit the Avitek military plant in Kirov, about 1,200 km from Ukraine. The next day, drones hit the Tyumen oil refinery some 2,000 km out and set fire to a Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg roughly 1,800 km away.
Ukrainian drones struck oil-industry sites deep inside Russia again overnight on 23 July, setting off fires that burned into the morning, monitoring channels reported. The targets sat far behind the front, and Russian air defenses reported downing drones over more than a dozen regions. Ukraine's military had not claimed the strikes by morning.
Oil sales bankroll the invasion, and Ukraine's long-range drone campaign routinely reaches the refineries, depots, and pipelines tha
Ukrainian drones struck oil-industry sites deep inside Russia again overnight on 23 July, setting off fires that burned into the morning, monitoring channels reported. The targets sat far behind the front, and Russian air defenses reported downing drones over more than a dozen regions. Ukraine's military had not claimed the strikes by morning.
Oil sales bankroll the invasion, and Ukraine's long-range drone campaign routinely reaches the refineries, depots, and pipelines that turn crude into fuel and cash far inside Russia. Kyiv keeps coming back to the same fuel-and-money network about as fast as Moscow can patch it. The General Staff says the effort has idled 42% of Russian refining and cost the industry $13.5 billion since August 2025.
Bashkortostan: a pipeline node, not just a refinery
Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+ reported a strike on the Subkhankulovo pipeline dispatch station near Tuymazy in Bashkortostan, about 1,300 kilometers from the front. Residents reported roughly eight impacts and a burning storage tank. Long-range Liutyi drones carried out the strike, Supernova+ said. The station belongs to Transneft-Ural and moves crude and fuel between Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, and other Russian regions.
A Transneft oil-pipeline station is on fire deep inside Russia
A fuel tank is ablaze about 1,300 km from the war zone. New footage shows flames at Transneft's Subkhankulovo pipeline station in Bashkortostan. Residents reported about 8 impacts.
Russian news Telegram channel Astra placed the fire at the station from eyewitness footage. Bashkortostan's emergencies committee later confirmed a fire, blaming falling debris — the explanation Russian officials routinely give for such strikes. A node like this is slower to repair than a single refinery, because it feeds several pipeline routes at once.
Ukraine burned another Transneft-Ural station in the same republic on 8 July.
Ulyanovsk Oblast: fire at the NS-Oil site
Drones also hit the NS-Oil facility at Novospasskoye, about 800 kilometers from the war zone. Supernova+ published footage of a large fire, and Militarnyi reported drones had struck the refinery. Ulyanovsk governor Alexei Russkikh claimed drones hit a fuel-and-energy site and started a fire.
Drones hit a Russian fuel facility 800 km from the front
A strike on NS-Oil's liquefied gas base in Ulyanovsk Oblast sparked a fire still burning hours later, black smoke drifting over Russia's Volga region.
Monitoring channels differed on the target. Exilenova+ described a liquefied-gas base, while Astra identified the refinery itself. The plant makes gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil. Accounts of its size varied widely, with Astra citing 30,000 tonnes a year and other channels putting it as high as 600,000.
Ukrainian drones hit the same plant in October last year.
Elsewhere overnight
Drones also reached Voronezh, the capital of a Russian region, bordering Ukraine's occupied northeast, where residents reported explosions. Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev claimed a falling drone set a detached house alight and killed a three-year-old boy, injuring his parents. He said the roof of an online retailer's warehouse was damaged. The company—Wildberries—had already halted night work after earlier strikes.
In occupied Crimea, the monitoring channel Krymsky Veter reported explosions near Feodosia, Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, and Yalta, and said Russian-installed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev claimed a drone attack on the city. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it downed 223 drones overnight.
A parallel naval operation, codenamed MoLoChKa, keeps burning the shadow-fleet tankers that carry Russian oil to export and fuel to occupied Crimea. The force hit eight more vessels the day before, two more today, and its public scoreboard shows it closing on 200 ships this month.
Ukrainian drones set fires at two Russian oil facilities at opposite ends of the country overnight on 14 July, according to monitoring channels and Russian regional authorities. The Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat petrochemical complex burned in Bashkortostan, some 1,300 km from the war zone, while the Afipsky refinery caught fire in Krasnodar Krai, around 400 km from the front. A Rosneft oil depot next to the Salavat plant was likely hit as well.
Ukraine's deep-strike campaign h
Ukrainian drones set fires at two Russian oil facilities at opposite ends of the country overnight on 14 July, according to monitoring channels and Russian regional authorities. The Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat petrochemical complex burned in Bashkortostan, some 1,300 km from the war zone, while the Afipsky refinery caught fire in Krasnodar Krai, around 400 km from the front. A Rosneft oil depot next to the Salavat plant was likely hit as well.
Ukraine's deep-strike campaign has idled more than 40% of Russia's refining capacity and pushed processing to its lowest level in two decades, forcing Moscow to ration gasoline in dozens of regions and smuggle fuel to the front hidden in grain trucks. With Omsk hit 2,500 km away and now Salavat burning, no major Russian gasoline producer sits beyond drone range anymore, and every repeat strike on plants like Afipsky resets repairs faster than Russia can finish them — a shortage of 400,000-600,000 tons a month that Belarusian and Kazakh supplies cover only halfway.
The last big gasoline producer still standing
Residents of Salavat heard a series of explosions in the early hours, then watched thick black smoke climb over the industrial zone, visible across the city. Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+ published footage of the fires. Russian news Telegram channel Astra confirmed through its OSINT analysis that the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat complex was struck and burning.
Black smoke rises over the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat complex after the Ukrainian drone strike, Salavat, Bashkortostan, Russia, 14 July 2026. Photo: Exilenova+
The plant is one of Russia's largest refining and petrochemical complexes. It processed 7.2 million tons of crude in 2024 — 2.7% of Russia's total refining — and produced 1.5 million tons of gasoline, 2.5 million tons of diesel, and 0.7 million tons of fuel oil, Reuters reported, citing industry sources. Its design capacity reaches 10 million tons a year, and it makes some 150 kinds of products, from jet fuel to polyethylene, ammonia, and plasticizers.
The complex was the last major gasoline producer that strikes had not yet touched in 2026. Its loss means roughly 11,000 tons of daily fuel deliveries gone from the Russian market — about 5% of domestic demand. Drones already struck the plant twice in September 2025, after which the regional head insisted it worked on as normal.
Preliminary damage: primary unit and polyethylene workshop
Ukrainian monitoring channel Supernova+ reportedpreliminary hits on the AVT-6 primary oil distillation unit and workshop No. 20, which produces high-density polyethylene. Nothing leaves a refinery without primary distillation, so damage there stops the whole production chain.
The strike likely reached beyond the complex itself. The Rosneft-Opt oil depot nearby probably caught fire too, according to Astra.
Bashkortostan head Radiy Khabirov claimed a "massive attack" of drones on Salavat's industrial zone was repelled. He attributed the "pockets of smoke" to falling debris of downed drones and stated nobody was hurt. Russia's aviation authority restricted operations at the Ufa airport during the attack.
Drones struck a refinery 1,300 km from the war zone: Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat is burning in Russia
Overnight on 14 July, residents of Salavat in Bashkortostan heard the explosions, then watched the smoke climb over a plant that refines 7.2 million tons of crude a year and makes… pic.twitter.com/emkIb4L3A1
Afipsky burns again at the other end of the fuel map
In Krasnodar Krai, the first explosions near the Afipsky refinery sounded around midnight, and a powerful fire followed, Ukrainian monitoring channel Krymsky Veter reported. The blaze rose near the plant's tank farm, according to Astra's analysis of witness footage. The Krasnodar Krai operational headquarters confirmed the fire at the refinery after the drone attack.
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The export-oriented plant runs two primary distillation units with capacities of 9,786 and 8,829 tons per day and does not currently make gasoline or diesel for the domestic market, Reuters reported. Together with the affiliated Krasnodar refinery, it processed 7.2 million tons in 2024 and 3 million tons in the first half of 2025. Ukraine's General Staff puts its share at about 2.1% of Russia's refining.
Drones have hit Afipsky at least eight times since May 2023, including a March 2026 strike that damaged the AT-22/4 primary processing unit and the previous attack on 11 June.
Long-range Ukrainian drones struck the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai on July 7, hitting one of the facility's technological workshops, a source in Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) told the Kyiv Independent. Located roughly 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory, the refinery is among the largest in southern Russia, producing over 6 million tons of fuel annually. It is involved in the reception, storage, and processing of hydrocarbons and distributes r
Long-range Ukrainian drones struck the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai on July 7, hitting one of the facility's technological workshops, a source in Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) told the Kyiv Independent.
Located roughly 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory, the refinery is among the largest in southern Russia, producing over 6 million tons of fuel annually.
It is involved in the reception, storage, and processing of hydrocarbons and distributes refined products via road and rail. The refinery is part of Russia's military-industrial complex and plays a direct role in supporting Moscow's war effort, the source said.
The Russian regional operational headquarters claimed that "drone debris" fell on the oil refinery.
The strike marks a renewed wave of Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, following a months-long pause since March. On July 1, Ukrainian drones struck the Saratovorgsintez oil refinery in Russia's Saratov Oblast.
Kyiv has targeted dozens of refineries, oil depots, and military-industrial sites since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Winter drone attacks forced at least four Russian refineries to temporarily shut down.
This is the second known strike on the Ilsky refinery. Ukrainian drones, operated by the Security Service (SBU) and Special Operations Forces (SSO), previously targeted the facility on Feb. 17, causing a fire.
Krasnodar Krai, a strategic region along Russia's Black Sea coast, has increasingly come under Ukrainian drone attacks as Kyiv extends the range of its strikes deep into Russian territory.
Ukrainian drones struck the Saratovorgsintez oil refinery in Russia's Saratov Oblast, causing damage to the facility, Ukraine's General Staff reported on July 1. "An important facility has been hit," the General Staff said via its official Telegram channel. The Saratovorgsintez refinery and chemical plant, owned by Russian energy giant Lukoil, is located nearly 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Ukraine's border in the city of Saratov. The city hosts multiple strategic military and industrial sit
Ukrainian drones struck the Saratovorgsintez oil refinery in Russia's Saratov Oblast, causing damage to the facility, Ukraine's General Staff reported on July 1.
"An important facility has been hit," the General Staff said via its official Telegram channel.
The Saratovorgsintez refinery and chemical plant, owned by Russian energy giant Lukoil, is located nearly 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Ukraine's border in the city of Saratov. The city hosts multiple strategic military and industrial sites.
The refinery was targeted to "reduce the enemy's offensive capabilities," the General Staff wrote.
"The occupiers use the capacity of this refinery to supply fuel and lubricants to Russian military units involved in the armed aggression against Ukraine."
The attack was a joint operation carried out by Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) and other military units, the General Staff said. A fire broke out at the site of the attack and damage to the refinery's technological installations has been confirmed. The full consequences of the strike are still being investigated.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.
The report is the latest in a series of announcements on July 1 about successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets. Earlier in the day, HUR released footage of Ukraine's UJ-26 drones, commonly known as Bober (Beavers), targeting high-value Russian air defenses and a fighter jet in occupied Crimea.
A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told the Kyiv Independent that Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian military plant in the city of Izhevsk, over 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the front lines.
Ukraine also hit a Russian command post in occupied Donetsk Oblast, according to the General Staff.
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