Ukraine has carried out 158 strikes on Russian oil refineries since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, hitting at least 24 of the country's 33 largest refining plants, Russian-language outlet Vot Tak reported.
Russia's oil refining volume has fallen to its lowest level since 2009 as a result of the campaign, Vot Tak said. Only the Omsk and Angarsk refineries, both east of the Urals, lie beyond Ukrainian drone range. The remaining seven unhit refineries are within reach.
Repeat strikes on Russian refineries are the backbone of Ukraine's "long-range sanctions" campaign, using drones to strike Russia's oil infrastructure in order to cut Russian oil output and fuel availability while bringing the war's economic toll inside Russia's borders.
What Russian media counted
The 33 plants tallied by the publication are those with refining capacity above 1 million tons of oil per year. Ukraine's Defense Forces have struck the Ryazan and Saratov refineries most often — 15 times each, Vot Tak reported.
Drones attacked the Syzran refinery on 21 May 2026, marking the 11th strike on that facility, the publication said. 2025 set the record for the number of attacks, and in 2026 Ukraine has almost matched the total for all of 2024.
Recent impact
On 21 May 2026, Reuters reported that Russia's fourth-largest refinery, LLC Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez, had shut its main primary crude distillation unit after a Ukrainian drone attack on 20 May 2026.
Virtually all major refineries in central Russia have been forced to halt or scale back production after Ukrainian drone attacks in recent days, the wire said. Some Russian refineries have reduced or halted operations because of the strike campaign, Vot Tak reported.
