Ryazan oil refinery on fire as Ukraine restarts strikes on Russian energy facilities

An oil refinery in the central Russian city of Ryazan became the first facility to be targeted by Ukraine since the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced that Kyiv would end a three-day moratorium on energy strikes.

“Overnight and this morning, our region was subjected to a mass drone strike,” Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said on Thursday, adding that a fire had broken out at the facility but that there were no known casualties.

Though it rarely comments on Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, Russia’s Defence Ministry later confirmed the attack, which it said had been carried out using four long-range cruise missiles and 69 drones.

The strike came just hours after Zelensky told the Financial Times that Kyiv would restart its airstrikes on Russian oil refineries given that Moscow had ignored the Trump administration’s push for a three-day pause in such strikes.

Overnight on Wednesday, a Ukrainian missile also struck the Borisoglebsk military airfield in Russia’s western Voronezh region, according to Ukraine’s Navy, which added that six Russian Su-34 fighter jets had been destroyed as a result.