Kyiv claims overnight strikes on Perm and Novoshakhtinsk refineries as Russia confirms a third shutdown in the campaign
Baltic Security Monitor | Material Update
25 September 2026 · verification cutoff 25 September 2026, 17:02 UTC
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Russia's Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Rostov region halted operations after an overnight drone attack, regional governor Yuri Slyusar said on 25 September. Hours later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Ukrainian forces had struck both Novoshakhtinsk and the much larger Lukoil refinery in Perm, resolving the attribution that was still open when this incident was first reported.
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What happened
Slyusar said Russian air defences destroyed around 50 drones over Rostov region overnight into 25 September, and that one strike damaged the Novoshakhtinsk refinery, forcing a "temporary" suspension of operations. He reported no casualties. Reuters independently reported the governor's statement. Neither the damaged processing units nor a repair timetable has been disclosed.
Zelenskyy later confirmed the strike from the Ukrainian side, saying forces had hit "two oil refineries — in Perm and Novoshakhtinsk" overnight using long-range capability, along with the Iskra defence plant in Ulyanovsk and two radar stations near Rostov. Ukraine's General Staff identified the Ulyanovsk target as NVP Iskra, a subsidiary of the Almaz-Antey air-defence concern that makes semiconductor components for military systems, and named the destroyed radar systems as a 64L6 Gamma-S1 and a 39N6 Kasta-2E2. At the time the incoming report on this story was compiled, Ukraine had not yet issued that confirmation; it has since been made on the record.
Sources disagree on Novoshakhtinsk's size: Reuters, citing the plant's own profile, puts annual capacity at 5 million tonnes of oil (about 100,000 barrels per day) sold mainly for export, while Ukraine's General Staff cited a capacity of roughly 7.5 million tonnes. BSM analysis: That gap is not resolved here and should not be silently split; it likely reflects different capacity metrics rather than a factual dispute about the strike itself. Perm's Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez plant, by contrast, is undisputedly much larger, with a stated capacity around 13 million tonnes a year and a role supplying fuel for Russia's military.
Why it matters
Novoshakhtinsk was the first Russian refinery hit in the war, in June 2022, and has been struck repeatedly since, including in December 2024 and again last month. This is not a new target but a recurring one going offline again — the material change is a second, near-simultaneous hit on Perm's substantially larger refinery, plus a defence-industrial component target, in a single package that Kyiv has now claimed openly rather than left ambiguous.
The strikes follow the 22 September meeting between Zelenskyy and President Trump at the UN General Assembly in New York, where Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready for an "energy ceasefire" if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine's energy system, but reported no agreement to unilaterally halt strikes on Russian oil facilities. Reuters reported that Zelenskyy separately warned Ukraine would keep striking back and make "the coming winter deeply painful for Russia" absent a deal. BSM analysis: The Novoshakhtinsk and Perm strikes came within days of that exchange, showing Kyiv continuing the refinery campaign while an energy-truce proposal remains under discussion rather than in effect — consistent with Zelenskyy's own framing, not a departure from it.
This adds to a concentrated run of hits this month on refineries in Moscow (Kapotnya, 20 September), Samara (Kuibyshev) and Ufa (Bashneft-UNPZ, both 21–22 September), part of a campaign Ukraine has run more than 70 times against Russian refining capacity in 2026. For the Baltic region the connection is indirect: sustained pressure on Russian energy and military-industrial logistics is occurring alongside continued NATO eastern-flank vigilance, but no direct operational link to the Baltic states is established by this event.
What to watch
Confirmation of the outage duration and damaged units at Novoshakhtinsk and Perm; any independent assessment of the Iskra plant's production loss; whether Moscow and Kyiv move toward or away from the energy-ceasefire idea raised in New York; and further refinery strikes in either direction.
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Baltic Security Monitor
Sources
- Yuri Slyusar, Governor of Rostov Region, public statement, 25 September 2026.
- Reuters, 25 September 2026 — Russia's Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery suspends operations after drone attack, governor says.
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, public statement, 25 September 2026, via Interfax-Ukraine — Defense forces attack two Russian oil refineries in Perm and Novoshakhtinsk.
- Ukrinform, 25 September 2026 — Ukrainian Defense Forces strike oil refineries in Perm and Novoshakhtinsk and two Russian radar stations.
- Kyiv Independent, 25 September 2026 — Ukrainian forces reportedly strike oil refinery 1,500 kilometers from border, Russian electronics factory.
- Bloomberg, 25 September 2026 — Small Refinery in Southern Russia Halts Runs After Attack.
- Al Jazeera, 23 September 2026 — Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready for energy truce with Russia after Trump talks.
- Kyiv Post, 22 September 2026 — reporting on the Samara and Ufa refinery strikes.
