Ukraine has continued its attacks on Russian oil facilities, with a strike on an oil installation being reported on Monday, November 2.
Ukrainian monitoring channels said the attack hit the Samara Linear Production and Dispatching Station in Prosvet, about 520 miles from the border with Ukraine.
Neptune Missile from Ukraine Creative Commons Image
Ukraine Tank Firing. Creative Commons Image.
The Kyiv Independent said it could not confirm the target of the attack.
The station houses major oil pumping, storage, and mixing facilities.
Fire Reported at Rosneft Refinery
This follows an attack on the Rosneft-owned Novokuybyshevsk Refinery on October 30 and reports of a fire at the Kstovo Refinery on November 1.
The Novokuybyshevsk refinery produces aviation fuels, gasoline, diesel, oils, and other petroleum products.
Ukraine has targeted refineries and fuel storage across Russia in a bid to cut off the industries that have been aiding and financing Moscow’s full-scale invasion, respectively, since February 2022.
Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said that there had been a “massive drone attack” in which “an industrial enterprise in the Kstovo district sustained significant damage.” He did not specify which plant had been attacked.
Alexander Novak, Russia’s deputy prime minister, acknowledged renewed attacks on its refineries.
“There was a pause, but attacks resumed today… One of the facilities sustained minor damage,” Russian state news agency TASS quoted the minister as saying.
He claimed that a trio of refineries and one gas chemical plant were attacked, and that one of the targeted plants had sustained minor damage.
Kyiv: There Is No Pause
Ukrainian forces had unofficially paused attacks on the refineries after pressure from President Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported on October 29. Sources said the pause would likely last until the U.S. midterm.
However, Ukrainian officials denied this.
“Jared [Kushner] suggested that we not hit refineries for 30 days,” a senior official told the Kyiv Independent.
“Nobody had given such an order,” he went on.
Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point has publicly celebrated previous strikes, saying on Friday that the Novokuybyshevsk refinery “is hosting visitors from Ukraine today.” The firm said the FP-1 drones were used in that attack.
Trading Patriots For Pause?
In an interview with Fox News on November 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would pause attacks if Russia stopped attacking Kyiv’s infrastructure, or if the U.S. offered more Patriot interceptors to defend itself.
“If you want us not to attack their oil refineries for one month, provide us with Patriots for one month,” he said, Interfax-Ukraine quoted him as saying.
“We will pay for it,” he said in comments seen by RFE/RL.
Washington approved a proposed $2.1 billion sale of 500 Patriot interceptors on October 30.
“Deliveries may begin only in a few years,” Zelenskyy warned via social media.
Russia Targets Ukraine’s Power Grid As Temperatures Drop
Ukraine’s power grid has come under further Russian attack as winter approaches.
Power cuts lasted between eight and 10 hours in Kyiv on Sunday after damage to a thermal power plant, the Guardian reported.
“The intensity of the strikes is very high, and the Russians are seeking to exploit the deficit of ballistic missile interceptors maximally,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy spoke in his October 30 address about ongoing repairs in Dnipro, Kyiv and other areas. He also said Russian ballistic missiles had attacked the Kremenchuk oil refining facilities.
“The Russians have not taken a single step toward energy de-escalation,” he explained, adding: “We will also act accordingly and entirely justly.”
The president also announced the expansion of units within Ukraine’s intelligence and security agencies responsible for conducting deep-strike operations.
Truce Ends in Oleshky
A six-day ceasefire in Oleshky, a southern Ukrainian city occupied by Russia, ended on Sunday. Almost 800 people were evacuated from the area, American First Lady Melania Trump said. “We managed to escape from this hell,” evacuee Liubov told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.
Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said both parties had “upheld the obligations they undertook throughout the duration of this period.”
However, Ukraine’s General Staff lamented: “the enemy, by contrast, used the humanitarian pause to improve its positions.”
On Monday, a Russian drone attack struck the center of Kherson following the conclusion of the brief truce.
No casualties have been reported.
Pope Leo XIV said he hopes the brief instance of cooperation “will foster a greater willingness to engage in dialogue and lead to new concrete initiatives for peace.”
About the Author: Georgia Gilholy
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education.
