Ukraine Drone Attack Hits Kirishi Refinery, 113 Drones

Ukrainian Drones Strike Kirishi Refinery, Russia’s Second Largest, as Leningrad Region Reports 113 Drones Downed

A Ukraine drone attack on November 9 hit the Kirishi refinery, Russia’s second largest, as Leningrad’s governor reported 113 drones and fires at the plant.

Kirishi Industrial Zone Beside the KINEF Oil Refinery. The Kirishi power station, which stands next to the refinery in the town’s industrial zone in the Leningrad region, photographed on October 20, 2011; file photo.Photo: alexandergroshev via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped) · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0

Lucas VaneDirector and Chief EditorNovember 9, 2026, 08:42 UTC3 min read

Ukrainian long-range attack drones have struck the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia’s Leningrad region, the second largest refinery in the country by processing volume, in an overnight raid on November 9 that regional authorities said involved more than a hundred drones. Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed that drones had hit the industrial zone of Kirishi, around 100 kilometres southeast of Saint Petersburg, after first stating that 81 drones had been shot down over the region and later raising the total to 113. Footage filmed by residents and geolocated to the plant showed at least two fires after a series of powerful explosions, while debris struck an apartment in Kirishi, where one family was evacuated, and a residential roof in Vsevolozhsk, with no injuries reported. The count is several times higher than those given for earlier raids on the plant, highlighting how far Ukraine’s ability to mass drones against targets 800 kilometres from the front has grown.

Aerial view of the town of Kirishi beside the Volkhov River with forest stretching to the horizon — Kirishi and the Volkhov River From the Air. The town of Kirishi in the Leningrad region, about 100 kilometres southeast of Saint Petersburg, photographed on July 25, 2011; file photo.Photo: Gavryusha60 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped; crops shared under the same licence) · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

The Russian Ministry of Defence stated that its air defences had downed 430 fixed-wing drones between 8 p.m. Moscow time on November 8 and 8 a.m. the following morning, over 13 regions from Belgorod and Kursk to Pskov and Leningrad as well as the Moscow region and Crimea, without giving a regional breakdown. Kiev had not formally commented by Monday morning, although its General Staff claimed the earlier attacks on the plant. The raid follows a fire at the Afipsky refinery during a night of heavy drone exchanges on November 6, with Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure having resumed on October 30 after a pause of nearly two weeks that coincided with pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to halt attacks on energy sites. It comes a day before U.S. mediated working level talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials expected in Abu Dhabi, with the Kremlin stating it has received no details of a wider deal.

Fire Point FP-1 long-range strike drone suspended above an exhibition stand — Ukrainian Fire Point FP-1 Long-Range Strike Drone. An FP-1, one of the drone types Ukraine has used against Russian refineries, on display at the MSPO defence exhibition in Kielce, Poland, in September 2026; file photo.Photo: Krzysztof Popławski via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped) · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

The Kirishinefteorgsintez plant, widely known as KINEF, was commissioned in 1966 and is owned by Surgutneftegas, which was placed under U.S. sanctions in January 2025 and has also been sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom. Its design capacity of between 20 and 21 million tonnes of crude oil a year accounts for more than six percent of Russian refining, and as the only refinery of its scale in the northwest it is a key fuel supplier to Saint Petersburg and the main source of aviation kerosene for Pulkovo Airport. Strikes this deep into the Russian rear force Moscow to spread its air defence coverage across an area far larger than the front, much as Russian ballistic missile attacks have left Ukraine running low on Patriot interceptors of its own.

Apron and cargo containers seen beside the angular glass facade of Pulkovo Airport's terminal — Pulkovo Airport’s Terminal in Saint Petersburg. The airport relies on the Kirishi refinery for aviation kerosene; photographed on June 17, 2015; file photo.Photo: Alexey Ivanov via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped; crops shared under the same licence) · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

Kirishi was first struck by Ukrainian drones on September 14, 2025, and again on October 4, 2025, with the attacks growing considerably in scale through 2026. On March 26 the Ukrainian General Staff stated that two primary crude processing units, the ELOU-AVT-2 and ELOU-AVT-6, had been damaged, and a strike on May 5 reportedly damaged three of the plant’s four crude distillation units and forced a temporary halt in processing. The refinery stopped all processing after the attack of August 30, 2026, when two of its primary distillation units were damaged.