Ukraine's Overnight Drone Barrage Knocks Out Two Russian Refineries Again, Kills Two

Since Ukraine launched its largest drone attack of the war on Moscow during the final day of Russia's parliamentary elections on September 20, Kyiv has kept hammering Russian oil refineries and defense plants. The latest barrage, overnight into September 25, hit two major refineries, a missile-components factory, and a passenger train, killing two people, according to Russian officials cited by Reuters.

Russia's Defence Ministry said air defenses shot down 592 drones overnight. Two of them apparently didn't get shot down where it counted. A drone struck a truck in the Belgorod region, killing one civilian and wounding another, local officials said. In the Perm region, Governor Dmitry Makhonin said one man was killed during what he called a large-scale attack.

Perm was also home to the night's biggest target: the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez refinery, one of Russia's ten largest, capable of processing more than 13 million metric tons of crude a year. Kyiv Post reported that Ukrainian monitoring channel Astra confirmed the strike and said a fire broke out at the plant's AVT-5 crude distillation unit. It's the second time the facility has been hit in five weeks, after an August 21 strike.

Novoshakhtinsk Down Again

In Russia's southern Rostov region, Governor Yuri Slyusar said roughly 50 drones were shot down overnight, but one got through to the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, forcing it to suspend operations. No casualties were reported there. Novoshakhtinsk is the only refinery in Rostov Oblast, processes 5.6 million metric tons of crude annually, and according to Kyiv Post was also knocked offline in a prior attack last month. Twice in roughly a month is not a great track record for keeping a refinery running.

The Iskra Plant in Ulyanovsk, part of Russia's Almaz-Antey defense conglomerate, was also struck. The facility makes semiconductor devices and microwave components used in missile systems. Governor Alexei Russkikh said eight people, including a child, were injured, and that medical services were placed on heightened alert with extra hospital beds prepared.

A passenger train running from Moscow to Tolyatti was hit in the Samara region. Russia's state railway operator said an electric locomotive and the first carriage were damaged by what it called "external interference," injuring the driver and halting traffic on that stretch of track. In Voronezh, Governor Alexander Gusev said 88 drones were destroyed over the regional capital and six surrounding districts, with four people injured and residential buildings, vehicles, and industrial sites damaged.

Nearly every number in this story, from drone counts to injury tallies, comes from Russian regional governors and the Russian Defence Ministry. These sources have an obvious interest in both downplaying damage and playing up their air-defense kill rate. Kyiv typically doesn't confirm individual strikes on Russian soil, preferring to let the damage speak for itself.

The Claimed Energy Truce That Isn't

Boereport reported that Ukraine and Russia have continued attacking each other's energy infrastructure despite President Trump's announcement that the two sides had agreed to stop. That report concerned an earlier round of strikes around September 20; the sources here do not establish exactly when Trump's announcement was made relative to this latest overnight barrage on Perm and Novoshakhtinsk, only that the pattern of strikes on energy infrastructure has continued regardless.

Zelensky, addressing the earlier September 20 Moscow-area strike on the Gazpromneft-Moscow refinery in Kapotnya, said the targeted facilities were bringing in "billions of dollars that sustain the war machine." That's Kyiv's stated rationale for hitting refineries specifically: starve Moscow's oil export revenue, which funds the war. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, for his part, called that earlier attack an attempt to disrupt the election and said "the enemy did not succeed."

Civilians are getting hurt in these strikes. A truck driver dead in Belgorod, a train driver injured in Samara, a child among the wounded in Ulyanovsk, apartment buildings evacuated near Moscow in the earlier attack. Both sides say they do not target civilians, and the pattern of strikes on refineries, defense plants, and rail lines carrying industrial freight points at military and economic targets rather than population centers. But drones and debris don't always land where intended, and the human cost of this campaign isn't zero.

Neither the Kremlin nor Kyiv has said whether the claimed energy-infrastructure truce still exists in any form. Whether Novoshakhtinsk comes back online before the next drone finds it is, at this point, an open question with a one-month track record answering it.