On the night of November 3, Ukrainian forces attacked Russia’s Saratov region with drones. The target was the Rosneft oil refinery, which has an annual capacity of 5.8 million tons, Astra reported, citing footage analysis from the site of the strike.
Analysts from the Dnipro Osint project reached the same conclusion. According to their data, the attack caused a fire near the AVT-6 unit. Another drone attempted to hit the pentane-hexane fraction isomerization unit but was stopped by an anti-drone net.
This is the fourth attack on the Saratov oil refinery since the beginning of autumn. Earlier strikes took place on September 16 and 20, and on October 16.
The Saratov refinery has a design capacity of about 140,000 barrels of oil per day and is one of the key suppliers of gasoline and diesel fuel for the European part of Russia. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that the facility is “involved in meeting the needs” of the Russian military.
Since early August, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have struck a total of 22 oil refineries, rendering some of them partially or completely inoperative. According to Bloomberg estimates, in October, Russia’s oil refining volumes fell to 4.86 million barrels per day — nearly 10% less than in July — marking the lowest level in at least the past five years.
Against this backdrop, residents of 57 Russian regions faced gasoline shortages. This forced the authorities to halt fuel exports, increase purchases from Belarus, and begin importing from China and other Asian countries. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that reduced oil refining rates caused by Ukrainian strikes would persist at least until mid-2026.
