Ukrainian drones hit Russia's Slavneft-YANOS refinery in Yaroslavl, sparking fires

Overnight attack on Yaroslavl

Ukrainian drones struck the Slavneft-YANOS refinery in Yaroslavl overnight into Tuesday, 3 November, and a fire broke out on the site. Yaroslavl region governor Mikhail Yevrayev said on Telegram that 124 drones were aimed at the facility and that parts of its infrastructure were damaged. He added that two employees were hit by shrapnel and hospitalised, and that emergency services were working to put out the blaze. Residents posted footage of the fires online, and OSINT analysts at Astra counted at least five separate seats of fire on the grounds. The governor also announced a temporary restriction on traffic on the road from Yaroslavl toward Moscow.

The refinery and its role

The plant is one of the five largest refineries in Russia, with a capacity of about 15 million tonnes of oil a year, or roughly 300,000 barrels a day. It is owned by Slavneft, which is jointly controlled by Rosneft and Gazprom Neft. Its output includes petrol, diesel, fuel oil, aviation kerosene and lubricants, and it supplies customers in the Central and North-Western federal districts, including Moscow. Sources also say it serves airports and defence-industry enterprises. The site had been struck before. A crude processing unit, AVT-4, was damaged in an attack on 28 August, and on 17 September a second unit, AVT-3, which accounts for about 40% of the plant's capacity, was damaged, halting operations at the time. The city lies about 250 kilometres north-east of Moscow.

A wider campaign against refineries

The Yaroslavl strike is part of a run of attacks on Russian oil sites. The Exilenova+ Telegram channel listed a refinery in Novokuibyshevsk, Samara region, on 30 October, a refinery in Ufa, Bashkortostan, on 31 October, a refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, on 1 November, and an oil pumping station in Samara region on 2 November. At least four large Russian refineries, Janos among them, have been hit since 30 October. Ukraine resumed strikes on the sector at the end of October after a pause of nearly two weeks, a break that had allowed Russia to partly rebuild its refining capacity. Kyiv has said the goal is to cut the oil export revenue the Kremlin uses to finance the invasion and to move the effects of the war onto Russian territory. Ukraine's military had not commented on the Yaroslavl attack at the time of reporting.

Russian claims and strikes on Ukraine

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday morning that 856 drones had been shot down or destroyed overnight, and the Kremlin said 493 of them had been heading for Moscow and the Moscow region. The ministry also reported its own overnight strikes on energy infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Vinnytsia regions, saying the facilities supplied electricity to Ukraine's military-industrial complex and armed forces. It said port facilities and vessels in the Odesa region were also targeted because of their military use. On Monday, 2 November, Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was preparing another large air attack, saying Moscow was counting on world attention being on the US congressional elections on Tuesday. Russian forces strike civilian infrastructure and other non-military targets almost daily.

Shot down or destroyed overnight (Russian Defence Ministry)856

Heading for Moscow and Moscow region (Kremlin)493

Shot down or destroyed overnight (Russian Defence Ministry)

856 drones

Heading for Moscow and Moscow region (Kremlin)

493 drones

Data from the article text

Patriot demands and peace talks

Reports suggested the late-October pause in refinery strikes may have been linked to a demand from US President Donald Trump. Zelensky told Fox News that Ukraine could stop attacking Russian refineries if it received Patriot systems from the United States for a month. US envoy Steve Witkoff wrote on X that a new round of talks between Russia and Ukraine, mediated by the United States, is planned for 10-11 November in Abu Dhabi. He said the agenda would cover post-war security guarantees, de-escalation, humanitarian steps and the next steps toward peace. The Yaroslavl attack comes roughly a week before those talks are due to begin.