According to journalists, the Saratov Oil Refinery, owned by Rosneft, was under fire. The channel publishes photos and videos taken by local residents. They show a large explosion and a column of fire over the city. Machine gun fire can also be heard.
Local public pages at night wrote about “pops” and two fires.
Later, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed attacks on the oil plant in Saratov, as well as on several other military facilities in the Russian Federation involved in meeting the needs of the occupying army.
The governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, admitted only damage to “civil infrastructure.” He later said that windows in residential buildings were broken and one woman was injured.
In the morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported 37 downed drones, including eight over the Saratov region.
The oil refinery in Saratov was attacked by drones several times, most recently on November 3.
Context
Ukraine regularly attacks targets on Russian territory. In recent months they have applied strikes mainly against oil and gas facilities. President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky stated that Ukraine has no choice but to retaliate against Russian air attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities.
Agency Reuters October 16, 2025 wrote that since the beginning of August, Ukraine has carried out at least 58 attacks on major Russian energy facilities, although there were only two in July and one in June.
On October 31, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Malyuk noted that Since the beginning of the year, there have been almost 160 successful hits of oil production and oil refining facilities in the Russian Federation, and in September and October – 20: six oil refineries (ORPs), two oil terminals, three oil depots and nine oil pumping stations. “This led to a deficit of more than 20% in the domestic market of petroleum products, to the downtime of 37% of oil refining capacities, as well as to a shortage of relevant petroleum products in 57 regions of the Russian Federation and a ban on the export of gasoline until the end of this year. Of course, we do not stop at our achievements,” said Malyuk.
