Ukrainian Drone Strike Sparks Fire at Major Russian Oil Refinery

An overnight Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at one of Russia's largest oil refineries in the city of Yaroslavl, north-east of Moscow, the regional governor said on Thursday.

Mikhail Yevrayev, the governor of the Yaroslavl region, wrote on Telegram that there was damage to the refinery, referring to the Slavneft-Yanos plant, which is jointly controlled by Rosneft and Gazprom. He reported no casualties and said the fire had been fully extinguished by Thursday morning.

Ukraine's military has previously claimed attacks on Slavneft-Yanos, saying the facility provides fuel and lubricants for the Russian military. The refinery has a crude processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, or 15 million metric tons a year.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strike on Slavneft-Yanos and reported damage to three Russian transport aircraft and three helicopters in a separate attack on a military airfield in the southern Rostov region. Yury Slyusar, the governor of Rostov region, said an overnight air barrage cut power to four districts in the regional capital, Rostov-on-Don, where around two-fifths of the city's residents live. No one was hurt in the strikes, he added.

Russia's defence ministry said it intercepted 641 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The country's Central Election Commission, which is running parliamentary and regional elections this weekend, said one of its members was killed in a drone attack in the occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia earlier on Tuesday.

In Kyiv, officials said a large-scale Russian attack on the city overnight wounded at least 16 people, with several others reported injured in separate attacks across Ukraine. Authorities also reported that a Russian drone strike on a Tanzanian-flagged civilian ship in the Black Sea killed its captain. They did not disclose his nationality.

Ukraine's latest attacks on Russian oil refineries came despite an announcement by President Donald Trump earlier in the week that Moscow and Kyiv had allegedly agreed to pause such strikes. The Russian military has continued to strike Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Trump has sought to blame the surging cost of diesel in the United States on Ukrainian strikes against Russian fuel production facilities and supply lines. While Ukraine's attacks have put pressure on petrol and diesel prices both inside Russia and globally, analysts broadly agree that the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran is the leading cause of current disruptions in energy markets.