Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian oil refinery in the early hours of 12 December, hitting the Slavneft-YANOS facility in the city of Yaroslavl and igniting a large fire, footage shared by local residents shows. Located more than 700 kilometers from Ukraine’s border, the refinery is one of the largest in Russia by capacity and serves critical industrial and defense sectors.
Fire breaks out at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries
The drone attack reportedly targeted the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, according to Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+. The strike led to a large-scale fire at the site, with local residents reporting a series of explosions just after 3 a.m. According to Russian news Telegram channel Astra, people living near the facility heard five to seven blasts and saw flashes over the city. Many also described hearing an engine noise in the sky shortly before the fire broke out.
Yaroslavl governor Mikhail Yevrayev had declared a drone threat warning in the oblast earlier that night. Social media posts and videos shared shortly after the incident showed a thick column of smoke rising from the refinery grounds.
This refinery is one of the top five in Russia in terms of primary oil refining capacity and processes up to 15 million tons of crude per year. The Slavneft-YANOS plant produces a broad range of petroleum products, including automobile gasoline, jet fuel, and lubricants.
Later, Exilenova+ reported that the strike likely hit the AVT-4 primary oil distillation unit at the Yaroslavl refinery, noting that a VT-6 vacuum distillation unit at roughly the same location had recently been disabled during a modernization process.
Strategic value of the refinery and its consumers
As noted by Militarnyi, the refinery’s output is critical for Russia’s internal infrastructure. Its products are supplied to major industrial enterprises across the Central and Northwestern oblasts of Russia. Among the known consumers are regional airports, the Northern Railway administration, and defense-related facilities tied to the military-industrial complex.
The Yaroslavl strike marks the second reported attack on this facility in recent months. A similar drone attack reportedly caused a fire at the same refinery on 31 October.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on the morning of 12 December that its air defenses had allegedly shot down 90 drones overnight across Russian regions.
