Ukrainian Drone Campaign Knocks Out Six Major Russian Oil Refineries in May Alone

Russia’s Syzran oil refinery in the Samara region has fully halted operations, according to reports confirmed on May 25, becoming the sixth major Russian refinery knocked offline by Ukrainian drone strikes this month.

A strike on 21 May damaged the plant's main CDU-6 crude distillation unit, which accounts for more than 70 percent of its capacity. Repairs could take more than a month.

The Rosneft-owned facility has a nameplate capacity of 8.5 million tons per year. In 2024, it produced 1.5 million tons of diesel, 800,000 tons of gasoline, and 700,000 tons of fuel oil—output that is now zeroed out.

Each strike in the May sequence has knocked out a different operator, region, and primary processing unit—making consolidated repairs impossible.

A consecutive streak

• 5 May—Kirishinefteorgsintez (Surgutneftegaz), Russia's second-largest refinery, suspended operations after drones damaged three of its four primary crude distillation units;

• 13 May—Permnefteorgsintez (Lukoil), the country's seventh-largest plant, fully halted production after a strike damaged key units and triggered a fire;

• 15 May—the Ryazan Oil Refinery (Rosneft) caught fire and shut down completely after an overnight strike on one of Russia's largest plants;

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  War in Ukraine

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• 17 May—the Moscow Oil Refinery (Gazprom Neft), which processed 11.6 million tons of oil in 2024, suspended operations after one of the largest drone strikes on the Moscow region since the start of the full-scale war;

• 20 May—Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (NORSI), Russia's fourth-largest refinery and second-largest gasoline producer, shut its AVT-6 unit, which handles 53 percent of plant capacity;

• 21 May—Syzran (Rosneft) joined the list, its CDU-6 unit was destroyed, and the plant was fully offline.

Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, stated that his branch alone has struck 10 major Russian refineries since the start of May.

The combined refining capacity now sidelined or curtailed amounts to roughly a quarter of Russia's national total, more than 30 percent of its gasoline production, and around 25 percent of its diesel output.

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