The Saratov oil refinery, one of Russia's oldest and part of the state-owned Rosneft group, was hit by a Ukrainian drone attack early Thursday morning, Ukraine's Special Operations Force (SSO) confirmed.
The bombing took place amid a kyiv offensive against Russian energy infrastructure, seeking to limit the oil resources that finance its invasion of Ukraine.
The SSO detailed that “the Saratov refinery is one of the oldest Russian refineries and has been the target of previous attacks”, also recalling that the same facility was damaged a month earlier.
The newly built complex plays a central role in the Russian oil market, with processing capacity reaching 7.2 million tons per year in 2020 and reaching 4.8 million tons in 2023.
Saratov Governor Roman Busargin, Russia's Defense Ministry, said on Telegram that it had received warnings of an impending drone attack around 1 a.m. local time. The Federal Air Transport Agency, known as Rosaviatsiya, later ordered the temporary closure of the city's airport. Residents of Saratov reported successive explosions and observed fires at the refinery, according to the Russian news channel Astra.
Videos posted on digital platforms showed the explosion at the refinery, followed by a fire. Russian authorities issued no immediate reports on casualties or the extent of material damage.
Ukraine's General Staff confirmed the attack, noting that the plant produces more than 20 types of petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel and fuel oil, some of which are used to supply the Russian armed forces.
The city of Saratov is located about 150 kilometers from the border with Kazakhstan and almost 600 kilometers east of the front line in Ukraine.
The attack comes amid energy tensions on both sides of the conflict. Since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, Moscow has launched repeated campaigns against Ukraine's electricity system, aiming to cut off power to large areas during the colder months. On Thursday, Russian attacks hit gas facilities in eastern Ukraine, causing outages in eight regions, according to Sergii Koretskyi, CEO of the Naftogaz energy group.
“ Impacts and destruction are occurring in several regions simultaneously. Critical facilities have been disrupted,” Koretskyi said.
Ukraine's energy grid operator was forced to order emergency outages in affected areas, mainly in the north and east of the country, where one of the largest private energy producers had to suspend operations.
“This fall, the Russians have not stopped attacking our energy infrastructure for a single day ,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine's air force estimated that Russia used around 320 drones and 37 missiles in the most recent attack.
Regional media reported that up to 60% of Ukraine's gas production may have been disrupted by Russian attacks on infrastructure, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.
Faced with the continuation of these attacks, Kyiv has intensified its campaign against refineries and oil depots on Russian territory. Ukraine insists that its strategy responds both to the need to limit Russian military capabilities and to obtain diplomatic concessions. Ukrainian authorities have redoubled their requests to Western allies for the supply of air defense systems to protect strategic infrastructure.
