Ryazan Oil Refinery catches fire after UAF drone attack
20 November 2025 12:09
Ukrainian drones attacked the Ryazan region on the night of November 20, according to the governor of the region Pavel Malkov, [Komersant ] reports, citing Russian propaganda media.
“The falling debris caused a fire on the territory of one enterprise. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties, material damage is being assessed,” Malkov said.
He specified that the debris fell in several districts of Ryazan. According to Russian and Ukrainian monitoring channels, the Ryazan Oil Refinery, the largest in Central Russia, was hit by drones. After the drone attack, a fire broke out at the enterprise.
This is the second attack on the refinery in a week, the second in a month, and the third since the beginning of the fall. Before that, it was targeted by Ukrainian drones on November 15, October 23, and September 5. It was also hit by a drone on August 2, when the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) had just started systematically attacking Russian energy infrastructure.
The Ryazan refinery belongs to Rosneft. In 2024, it processed 13.1 million tons of raw materials and provided 5% of Russia’s total refining capacity. The refinery supplies fuel to the Moscow region.
According to Reuters sources, after the attack on November 15, the refinery shut down due to the failure of the main oil refining unit, which accounted for 48% of capacity, or 8 million tons per year. Before that, the company had already shut down part of its facilities. Thus, it was completely paralyzed, the agency’s sources said.
The Ryazan refinery became the fifth oil refinery to stop production in November due to drone attacks. on November 3, Rosneft’s Tuapse refinery was shut down, on November 6 – Lukoil’s Volgograd refinery, on November 10 – Orsknefteorgsintez in the Orenburg region, and on November 11 – Rosneft’s Saratov refinery.
According to the agency’s interlocutors familiar with classified industry statistics, in August-October, after a series of UAV attacks, oil refining in Russia fell by 6% compared to July and by the same amount in annual terms. In total, over 10 months, refineries lost 3% compared to last year, which was already the worst year for the industry in 12 years. The authorities classified official statistics on gasoline production in Russia in 2024, citing the risks of market “speculation.”
