Ukraine hits key Russian oil refinery as Moscow strikes Kyiv

Bloomberg News on Sep 17, 2026

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Ukraine damaged a major Russian oil refinery less than 200 miles northeast of Moscow while Russian forces attacked Ukrainian infrastructure overnight, a fresh indication the sides haven’t agreed to an energy truce despite claims by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A fire broke out at the Yaroslavl oil refinery following the drone attack and was later extinguished, regional governor Mikhail Yevrayev said on Telegram. The refinery, which has a processing capacity of about 300,000 barrels a day, is co-owned by Rosneft PJSC and Gazprom Neft PJSC and was designed to supply oil products to Moscow and the surrounding regions, the country’s largest fuel-consumption market.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the attack on the plant and said his country was responding to Russian aggression in a post on social media.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it carried out multiple strikes on Ukraine’s civil and energy infrastructure, including a battery-storage park in Brovary near Kyiv and a power station feeding the Black Sea port of Izmail.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired missiles and 157 drones targeting mainly the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions. Air defenses downed 131 targets, it said, without indicating whether any missiles were intercepted.

The multiple overnight strikes follow Trump’s declaration on Monday that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to halt mutual attacks on energy facilities in a social media post. The U.S. president blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries — rather than the conflict in the Middle East — for a surge in diesel prices.

While both Moscow and Kyiv said they would welcome a potential energy truce, they made it clear there’s no agreement to stop attacks.

The Yaroslavl refinery is the second Russian refinery to have been hit since Trump made the claim. It has been a target of multiple earlier Ukrainian drone strikes, most recently in late August.

Military authorities in Kyiv have been hitting Russian energy assets, including refineries, pipelines and export terminals, in a move to reduce the Kremlin’s oil revenue funding the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now well into its fifth year. The campaign has forced Russia, formerly a major global diesel exporter, to introduce a temporary ban on selling the fuel abroad.

While the current diesel restrictions are in force through the end of September, Russia is considering extending them for one more month, which could further tighten global supplies. In the U.S., diesel futures have settled at a record, while average retail prices for the fuel have rallied to an all-time high.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, its forces also targeted metallurgical and electronics enterprises, defense plants and transport infrastructure in Ukraine, as well as vessels it said were used for military purposes. Russian air defenses downed 641 Ukrainian drones overnight, it said on Telegram.

At least 18 people were injured in Kyiv and water supplies were disrupted in eastern districts of the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday on Telegram. Six were injured in the Black Sea city of Odesa, where buildings and infrastructure were damaged, according to local authorities.