Ukrainian drones struck the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia's northwestern Leningrad region in an overnight attack on Sunday-Monday, November 8-9, in one of the deepest Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure in recent weeks. The plant, around 800 kilometres (roughly 500 miles) north of Ukraine, is Russia's second-largest oil refinery.

Source: Kyiv Independent via EuropeSays

Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko of the Leningrad region said on Telegram on Monday that drones had hit an industrial area in the town of Kirishi, adding that 81 drones had been downed so far with the attack still continuing. An apartment in the town was damaged, he said, without providing further details.

Source: Reuters via DevDiscourse

In a later count reported by the Kyiv Independent, Drozdenko put the total at 113 Ukrainian drones shot down over the region during the attack. Ukrainian monitoring channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+ reported large explosions at the refinery, eyewitness footage appeared to show enormous fireballs rising from the site, and NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), which uses satellite data to detect fires and thermal anomalies, registered multiple hotspots at the facility.

Source: Kyiv Independent via EuropeSays

What the Kinef plant is

The Kirishi Petroleum Organic Synthesis plant, known as Kinef, can produce 20 million metric tons of oil per year — yaani about 2 crore tons a year — and accounts for more than 6% of Russia's total refined oil output, including fuel that supports the country's armed forces. The plant is subject to Western sanctions imposed by Ukraine's allies, including measures by the United States. Kirishi also sits in a region that is a major export outlet for Russian grain and oil through the Baltic Sea.

Source: Kyiv Independent; Reuters

A plant hit before

This is not the first time Kinef has been targeted. Ukrainian drones struck the refinery on August 30, and on May 5 the plant temporarily halted processing after drone strikes damaged three of its four crude distillation units. Neither Ukraine's military nor Russian officials had, in the reporting reviewed for this story, confirmed how much damage the latest attack caused to the refinery itself, and no casualty figures were reported by the governor.

Part of a renewed energy war

The attack comes as Ukraine resumes strikes on Russia's energy infrastructure following a temporary halt urged by US President Donald Trump. Senior Ukrainian officials told the Kyiv Independent that Kyiv never agreed to Trump's unilaterally imposed energy ceasefire with Russia of October 31. Russia, for its part, has increased strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent weeks, causing widespread blackouts and water outages and civilian deaths, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Source: Kyiv Independent via EuropeSays

What happens next

The strike lands two days before delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States are due to meet in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11 for US-mediated talks on ending the war, security arrangements and humanitarian measures. Whether the renewed strikes on energy infrastructure on both sides harden positions at those talks — and whether the Kinef plant's processing is disrupted, as it was in May — are the two questions to watch in the coming days.

Ukraine's power network was hit again last week and later restored at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Read: Zaporizhzhia power restored, IAEA says