Ukrainian drones struck the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region for a second consecutive night, with residents posting videos showing a large fire and smoke rising over the city. Independent Russian monitoring channel Astra geolocated the footage to the refinery, and Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Yevrayev acknowledged drones were attacking the region, reporting traffic restrictions on roads near the Southwestern Ring Road and Moskovsky Prospekt, where the plant is located. Yevrayev made no mention of the refinery itself, and Russian authorities had not confirmed operational damage at the time of writing.
The refinery lies roughly 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow but more than 700 kilometers from Ukraine’s border, illustrating the growing reach of Kyiv’s long-range drone campaign. The facility processes about 15 million tonnes of crude annually, placing it among Russia’s five largest refineries and making it a major fuel supplier for central Russia. Ukrainian military officials have previously described YANOS as an important military logistics target because it produces gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel used by Russia’s armed forces.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the refinery had already been hit the previous night, describing the attacks as part of Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” campaign against Russia’s oil infrastructure. Kyiv Independent has documented at least four separate strikes on YANOS during May alone, while other reporting indicates the refinery has been targeted repeatedly since March. Reports place the total number of attacks on the facility this year at seven or more, although the exact chronology has not been independently confirmed for this article.
Ukraine has increasingly concentrated its long-range drone campaign on Russia’s refining sector, seeking to disrupt fuel production, complicate military logistics and impose repeated repair costs on strategically important facilities. Reuters has reported that earlier attacks on major refineries in Omsk, Bashkortostan and the Moscow region caused temporary shutdowns or reduced output. Russian officials confirmed air defenses had engaged drones over Yaroslavl but stopped short of acknowledging damage at YANOS, even as local authorities restricted traffic near the refinery following the attack.
