Ukrainian drones strike major Russian oil refinery in Leningrad Oblast, key unit halts production, Reuters reports
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect Reuters' reporting on the production halt of a key unit at the Kirishi oil refinery in Leningrad Oblast.
Ukrainian forces attacked the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia's Leningrad Oblast overnight on Sept. 14, Ukraine's General Staff confirmed.
The Kirishi refinery is one of the largest in Russia and has a processing capacity of over 17 million tons of oil per year.
Russian air defense intercepted three drones in the Kirishi area, Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko claimed. Wreckage from a downed drone crashed on the site of the refinery, igniting a fire.
The fire has since been extinguished and there were no casualties, Drozdenko said.
Video footage and photos from local residents published by the Russian opposition news channel Astra appear to show a large blast and flames rising from the Kirishi refinery after the attack.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these reports.
The attack forced the halt in production at a key processing unit at the refinery, Reuters reported, citing two industry sources.
Sources told Reuters that a furnace at the unit as well as other equipment was damaged in the strike, forcing production to be halted. The unit accounts for nearly 40% of the plant's production capacity, which totals to approximately 400,000 barrels per day.
Sources told Reuters that they expect maintenance at the unit to take a month.
The Kirishi refinery, also known as Kirishinefteorgsintez or KINEF, is one of Russia's top two oil refineries by volume, along with the Ryazan Oil Refinery. A subsidiary of Surgutneftegaz, the facility refines about 17.7 million metric tons per year (355,000 barrels per day) of Russian crude, amounting to 6.4% of the country's total.
The refinery is located over 800 kilometers (497 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) said it carried out a strike on the Kirishi refinery in March 2025.
The latest strike on the refinery comes shortly after one of the largest drone attacks against Leningrad Oblast of the full-scale war. Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) drones attacked Primorsk, Russia's largest oil-loading port on the Baltic Sea, overnight on Sept. 12.
After the Ukrainian drone strike, fires broke out at one of the vessels and a pumping station, forcing the suspension of oil shipments, an SBU source told the Kyiv Independent.
Ukrainian forces have intensified attacks on Russia's oil industry over the past year, forcing operational suspensions and exacerbating a nationwide fuel shortage. Kyiv considers Russian oil refineries to be valid military targets as they fund and fuel Moscow's war machine.
