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Ukraine’s drones hit deep—St Petersburg’s main fuel plant engulfed in flames (video)

Par :Yuri Zoria

ukraine’s drones hit deep—st petersburg’s main fuel plant engulfed flames engulf kinef refinery russia's leningrad oblast near st petersburg after ukrainian drone strike 14 2025 kirishi-refinery-nice major fire broke out

A major fire broke out at the Kirishinefteorgsintez (KINEF) refinery near St Petersburg overnight on 14 September after Ukrainian drones struck the facility. Telegram channels shared videos showing a drone strike and flames at the site.

The attack is part of Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign, targeting Russian oil processing and transportation facilities. Ukrainian drone activity has increasingly focused on Russia’s oil pipelines and refineries in recent months, with such strikes occurring almost on the daily basis. This latest attack comes just a day after a reported strike on the Ufa refinery. Many recent strikes on oil refineries across Russia have already caused gasoline shortages across several regions—mostly in western and southern Russia.

Ukrainian drones strike fuel-producing giant near St Petersburg

The refinery, located in the city of Kirishi in Leningrad Oblast, roughly 100 km southeast of St Petersburg and 800 km north of Ukraine’s border, is among Russia’s top 10 oil-processing facilities.

According to Ukrainian Telegram channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+, drones struck the plant, triggering a fire. Satellite data from NASA’s FIRMS wildfire monitoring platform confirmed a high-temperature anomaly over the facility starting at 3:56 on 14 September, Militarnyi noted.

KINEF, also known as Kirishinefteorgsintez, processes more than 19.8 million tonnes of crude oil annually and is Russia’s largest refinery by fuel output. It is the main employer in Kirishi and receives oil via pipelines connected to distribution hubs in Yaroslavl Oblast. The refinery produces gasoline, aviation fuel, and other oil-based products, and is the largest in the region.

Geolocation suggests crude distillation unit was struck

Exilenova+ shared videos of the fire and geolocated one of the clips to the AVT-6 unit, a primary crude distillation facility inside KINEF. Supernova+ posted the same footage and confirmed the location, citing point-of-view coordinates of 59.48142116992881, 32.05681249936609. Exilenova+ placed the strike at 59.485193514189746, 32.05810543986888. Both sources concluded the AVT-6 unit was likely the target.

While Ukrainian sources indicated this was a deliberate strike, the Russian news Telegram channel Astra cited the governor of Leningrad Oblast, Alexander Drozdenko, who claimed three drones were shot down in the Kirishi area, and that wreckage from the interception caused a fire on refinery grounds. He stated that the fire was extinguished quickly and reported no casualties.

 

Second strike on the same facility in six months

This is not the first time the KINEF refinery has come under attack. Ukrainian drones targeted the same facility on 8 March 2025, damaging a fuel storage tank. At the time, governor Drozdenko also blamed the damage from a direct drone hit on “debris”: “During the fall of debris, the external structure of one of the reservoirs was damaged,” he wrote back then.

Meanwhile, Astra also relayed a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense claiming Russian air defense forces had intercepted 80 Ukrainian drones overnight across several oblasts. According to the ministry, this included 2 drones over Leningrad Oblast, where Kirishi is located, along with other interceptions over Bryansk, occupied Crimea, Smolensk, Kaluga, Novgorod, Oryol, Ryazan, and Rostov oblasts, and the Azov Sea area.

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