Ukraine has resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries, Russia says

Ukraine has resumed its attacks on Russian oil refineries after a brief pause, Russia’s deputy prime minister said Friday, warning the strikes could reduce Moscow’s planned diesel exports.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump had been pressuring Kyiv for weeks to stop such attacks, blaming them for the rising cost of diesel.

Analysts have linked rising fuel prices to the war the United States and Israel launched against Iran in February.

“There was an attack overnight on Russian oil-processing facilities… specifically, three oil refineries and one gas-chemical complex,” Russia’s deputy prime minister for energy issues, Alexander Novak, told a reporter from state TV.

“We had a lull that lasted a certain time, but today the attacks on oil refineries resumed,” he added.

Videos published by Russian Telegram channels purported to show smoke billowing from an oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region — located 800 kilometres from the Ukrainian border — following a drone attack overnight.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said on Telegram that two men had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike.

Kyiv has repeatedly struck Russian oil and gas sites in retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure since Moscow began its offensive there in February 2022.

Mr. Trump, earlier in October, struck an agreement with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to ease sanctions on Moscow in exchange for it releasing diesel onto global markets.

Following the deal, which sparked an outcry from Kyiv and Ukraine’s European allies, Mr. Trump announced a surprise “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, which Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said he knew nothing about.

Mr. Trump’s sanctions deal was seen as an effort to drive prices down in the United States, which consumes approximately 3.9 million barrels of diesel each day, ahead of next week’s midterm elections.

Mr. Novak said on Friday (October 30, 2026) that Russia had shipped around 510,000 tonnes of diesel to global markets under the deal in October, adding that “we are planning for a higher amount in November”, or around 2.15 million tonnes.

However, he cautioned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries “could certainly lead to a reduction in supply volumes”, although “perhaps only slightly”.

“This will undoubtedly impact global markets,” he said, charging that “the actions taken by Ukrainian drones against our refineries are unequivocally detrimental to global markets”.