Drones Strike Lukoil Refinery and Power Plant in Kstovo

Ukrainian long-range strike drones attacked the “Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez” oil refinery and the adjacent Novogorkovskaya combined heat and power plant in the city of Kstovo in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region overnight into Sunday, Nov. 1, triggering multiple large fires across the strategic industrial complex. Residents in Kstovo began circulating footage of major blazes lighting up the skyline around 4:00 a.m. local time, reporting repeated loud detonations and low-flying drone engine sounds over the municipal industrial zone.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Open-source intelligence monitors, including Ukrainian OSINT channel Exilenova+, reported that incoming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) penetrated dense local air defenses, causing simultaneous large fires in several operational sections of the facility. Monitoring group Crimean Wind corroborated the strikes, confirming that blazes engulfed sections of the refinery. The enterprise, operated by Russian oil major Lukoil, functions as one of the largest petroleum refining facilities in Russia, boasting an annual design crude throughput capacity of approximately 17 million metric tons – equivalent to roughly 340,000 barrels per day. Nationally, the Kstovo facility ranks fourth among Russian refineries by total processing volume and stands as the country’s second-largest producer of commercial motor gasoline. The installation manufactures high-octane automotive gasoline, diesel fuel, jet propulsion kerosene, bitumen, and specialized petroleum fractions utilized directly by Russian military logistics and heavy mechanized equipment. Other Topics of Interest Stubb Refutes Putin Slavic History Lecture, Backs Kyiv Finnish President Alexander Stubb has dismissed reports that Vladimir Putin lectured him on Slavic history, saying the call was made at Ukraine’s request. Concurrent strike on Novogorkovskaya CHP In addition to direct hits on the refinery, Exilenova+ reported an aerial strike on the neighboring Novogorkovskaya combined heat and power plant (CHP). Situated directly within the Kstovo industrial belt, the Novogorkovskaya CHP serves as the primary regional energy backbone supplying high-pressure steam and electricity to surrounding heavy petrochemical complexes, including the Lukoil refinery. Deepening asymmetric campaign against Russian refining nodes Overnight Oct. 30-31, Ukrainian long-range strike drones struck the northern industrial hub of Ufa in the Republic of Bashkortostan, located 1,400 kilometers east of Ukraine. Open-source intelligence analysis confirmed that the Ufa strike ignited the critical L-35 catalytic reforming unit at the Bashneft-Novoil refinery and damaged facilities at the adjacent Bashneft-UNPZ plant, disrupting high-octane gasoline output across the 23.5-million-ton Ufa refining cluster. That raid followed an attack 24 hours earlier, overnight into Friday, Oct. 30, against Rosneft’s 8.8-million-ton Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in Samara region, which produces specialized aviation fuel for the Russian Aerospace Forces, struck alongside an enterprise supplying military combat food rations. Combined strikes on defense-industrial and propellant supply chains The sequential targeting of major refineries coincides with synchronized precision interdiction against Russian military-industrial supply chains and tactical logistics. Overnight Oct. 30-31, the Ukrainian Navy and unmanned aerial units launched a combined strike utilizing domestically manufactured Neptune cruise missiles in a land-attack role and long-range drones against the “Kamensky” chemical plant in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov region. The strike ignited a warehouse storing finished solid rocket propellant and damaged four production workshops at an enterprise producing propulsive charges for 220mm Uragan, 300mm Smerch, and 300mm Tornado-S multiple-launch rocket systems, as well as tactical guided missiles. Concurrently, Ukrainian precision strikes destroyed four Russian material-technical logistics supply depots across occupied Ukrainian territories near Khartsyzk, Dokuchaievsk, Novovasylivka, and Novoaidar. These operations build upon earlier deep-rear strikes against critical single-source defense suppliers, including the Avisma titanium and magnesium complex in Perm region, the Omsky Kauchuk rocket propellant and polymer plant in Siberia, the Tolyattikauchuk synthetic rubber facility in Samara, and the Energiya defense accumulator plant in Yelets. Tymur Dubovyk - journalist, newsfeed editor