On the night of 1 November, strike drones of Ukraine’s Defence Forces hit the Lukoil-Nizhny Novgorod Refinery in the city of Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia. After the attack, a fire broke out on the site.
This was reported by the monitoring channels Exilnova+ and ASTRA.
According to preliminary information, the blaze occurred in the area of the AVT-6 and AVT-5 units. Among the possible strike locations, sources also mention the visbreaking unit for gudron, or the 35/11-600 unit.
An alert over the threat of drone attacks in Nizhny Novgorod Region was issued at 01:01 on 1 November, Moscow time. At around 02:51–03:08, local residents began reporting air-defence activity and explosions on the plant’s premises.
The Lukoil-Nizhny Novgorod Refinery, also known as the NORSI refinery, is one of Russia’s largest oil refineries. Its capacity is around 15–17 million tonnes of oil per year, or roughly 340,000 barrels per day.
The plant produces petrol, diesel and jet fuel, fuel oil, bitumen, lubricants and other petroleum products.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence has, as usual, claimed that as many as 235 UAVs were involved over 17 regions of the country.