Drones Strike Lukoil Refinery and Power Plant in Kstovo

Overnight on November 1, Ukrainian long-range strike drones targeted the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery and the Novogorkovskaya combined heat and power plant in the city of Kstovo, in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region. The attacks triggered multiple large fires across the industrial complex. Residents began sharing footage of significant blazes and low-flying drone engine sounds around 4 a.m. local time.

Open-source intelligence monitors noted that the UAVs managed to penetrate the local air defenses, causing simultaneous large fires in several operational sections of the facility. Crimean Wind corroborated the strikes, confirming that blazes engulfed sections of the refinery. Lukoil operates the facility, which is one of the largest petroleum refining facilities in Russia, with an annual design crude throughput capacity of around 17 million metric tons.

The plant is the second-largest producer of commercial motor gasoline in the country and manufactures various petroleum products used by the Russian military logistics and heavy mechanized equipment. The facility also suffered direct hits from the drone strikes. The Novogorkovskaya combined heat and power plant, located next to the refinery, was also targeted, supplying high-pressure steam and electricity to surrounding heavy petrochemical complexes.

Earlier, on October 30-31, Ukrainian drones attacked the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Ufa, causing damage to the critical L-35 catalytic reforming unit and damaging facilities at the adjacent Bashneft-UNPZ plant. This raid followed an attack on Rosneft’s Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in the Samara region, producing specialized aviation fuel for the Russian Aerospace Forces.

The sequential targeting of major refineries is part of synchronized precision interdiction against Russian military-industrial supply chains and tactical logistics.