Drones set fire to Lukoil’s refinery in Kstovo, one of Russia’s largest, overnight on 1 November, Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+ reported. The raid came days after a US newspaper reported a pause in Ukraine’s refinery strikes, though Zelenskyy said units never had an order to stop. Over the same weekend, Ukraine’s military reported striking a rocket-fuel plant in southern Russia, and drones also hit a refinery in Ufa.

Russia’s war runs on fuel and oil money, and refineries have been Ukraine’s main long-range target. Ukraine says its drones hit 12 Russian refineries in September alone. Strikes then went quiet after Washington declared an energy ceasefire in mid-October. US President Donald Trump later called Ukraine’s renewed refinery strikes “a disgrace.” Every new refinery fire revives a campaign Washington has pressed Kyiv to drop.

Fire burned past dawn at Lukoil’s Kstovo plant

Exilenova+ began posting footage of explosions over Kstovo shortly after 04:00 Kyiv time. The fire kept growing past dawn, sending up a huge plume of smoke. The channel suggested the blaze centered on the AVT-6 and AVT-5 crude units and a tar visbreaker, or on unit 35/11-600. Satellite images would give a clearer picture, it added.

Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin claimed drone strikes caused “significant damage” to an “industrial enterprise” in Kstovo district, Russian Telegram channel Astra reported. He did not name the facility. The regional government later urged drivers to fill up “as needed, without creating a rush,” Astra added. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it downed 235 drones over 17 Russian regions overnight, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast among them. Ukraine’s General Staff had not commented on Kstovo by midday.

Kstovo was the third Russian refinery attacked in three days, after Novokuibyshevsk and Ufa, Russian Telegram channel Agentstvo calculated. Together, the three plants process about 24 million tons of crude a year, roughly 10% of Russia’s refining, and make more than 10% of its diesel. Nikitin also claimed air defenses destroyed more than 100 drones over the region overnight and in the morning. Regional authorities said they were taking measures to keep gas stations supplied, Agentstvo Novosti noted.

The Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez plant can process 15 million to 17 million tons of crude a year, depending on the estimate. It supplies about 30% of Moscow Oblast’s gasoline. The plant sits about 780 km from Ukraine’s border. Ukraine has hit it repeatedly: in November 2025, in April, and in May, when a strike halted its main crude unit.

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Explosions rock Russia’s Kstovo as drone strikes target the oil industry hub overnight (MAP)

Days after a reported pause

On 29 October, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Ukraine had paused refinery strikes under US pressure until after the 3 November midterms. Hours later, drones hit the Novokuibyshevsk refinery in Samara Oblast. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on 30 October that “every Russian strike on our cities and communities always gets our fully justified response.” Ukraine’s deep-strike units will also be expanded, he added. On 27 October, he told reporters that units had been “a little more careful” but “do not have an order” to stop, WSJ reported.

Neptune missiles and drones hit a rocket-fuel plant

Ukrainian forces struck the Kamensky Combine in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov Oblast, overnight on 31 October, Ukraine’s General Staff reported. Strike drones and the Navy’s Neptune coastal missiles hit the plant together. The strike set a finished-goods warehouse on fire and damaged four workshops. The combine makes solid rocket fuel for Russia’s Uragan, Smerch, and Tornado-S multiple rocket launchers, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it intercepted four of Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missiles and two Neptunes that night. Ukraine’s General Staff also reported hitting four Russian supply depots in occupied Ukraine. They sit near Khartsyzk and Dokuchaievsk in Donetsk Oblast, Novovasylivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and Novoaidar in Luhansk Oblast.

A refinery fire in Ufa

On the morning of 31 October, drones hit the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Astra’s OSINT analyst found from eyewitness photos. Local residents said two plants came under attack. By the afternoon, the fires had been contained, Ukrainian Telegram channel Supernova+ said. Ukraine’s drones struck Bashneft’s Ufa refineries in June, and a fire in the city’s refinery zone was last reported on 21 September, Astra noted.

Lipetsk, Rostov, and the road to Crimea

Early on 1 November, agents of Atesh, a Crimean Tatar-Ukrainian partisan movement, reported explosions near the Lipetsk Tractor Plant during a mass drone raid. Atesh says the plant is Russia’s only maker of tracked chassis for air defense systems. Russian officials have not confirmed any damage.

Overnight on 1 November, locals reported attacks in Taganrog and six districts of Rostov Oblast, the Ukrainian Telegram channel of Petro Andriushchenko’s Center for the Study of Occupation said. Local sources also reported drone attacks on Pochep in Bryansk Oblast. Two Belgorod Oblast villages came under attack on the evening of 31 October. The results remain unknown.

Ukraine’s strikes on Russian logistics are also thinning traffic to occupied Crimea, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on 31 October. Anatoly Tsurkin, head of the Russian-installed freight carriers’ association in Crimea, claimed daily truck traffic from Rostov Oblast fell from 2,000–3,000 to 600–800. He claimed the M-14 highway, which occupation officials call the R-280, is the only road trucks can use. Drone strikes have also scared off drivers, he claimed.