Russian oil refinery suffers major drone attack

KYIV — The local governor of Russia’s Samara region blamed Ukraine for an early morning drone attack that struck an oil refinery in Novokuibyshevsk city.

“In the course of terrorist attacks on the civil infrastructure of our region and country, the vile enemy from Kyiv launched a record number of drones. There were no casualties, which is the most important thing,” Samara Governor Viacheslav Fedorischev said in a statement on Russian state messaging app Max.

Russian air defense forces shot down 1,043 Ukrainian drones over Samara, and 18 other Russian regions overnight, Moscow’s Ministry of Defense reported Friday.

Fedorischev asked locals not to reveal what was struck, but independent Russian media channel Astra reported a fire at the local oil refinery, which produces jet fuel for the Russian army. Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery can produce about 8.8 million metric tons of oil per year, according to Russian oil company Rosneft.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Kyiv had agreed to pause strikes on Russian oil refineries under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump. The unofficial halt is expected, according to the report, to last until after the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 3. Ukraine had paused drone strikes on Russian oil refineries for 72 hours when Trump announced an energy ceasefire earlier this month. But the Kremlin kept bombarding Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

“That didn’t help. There was all kinds of rhetoric, and no one thanked us for those three days,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv earlier this week.

As of Friday morning, Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the latest strike — though there was some trolling from the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.

“Little drone, how did you end up there? The Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery welcomes guests from Ukraine,” Ukrainian defense company Fire Point — which produces long-range drones used by Kyiv to bomb targets in Russia — said in a morning Telegram post.

Russia also attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and more than 100 drones overnight, killing one person in Kyiv and leaving 350,000 people without electricity in Dnipro.