Ukrainian drones hit Russia’s Ryazan refinery on Thursday, only hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the pause in strikes on Russian oil plants was over. Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov confirmed a fire at the site after what he called a major drone attack. Officials are still assessing the damage.
The pause had lasted three days. On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy later said Moscow had ignored the ceasefire, and he told the Financial Times on Thursday that the limit on refinery attacks was finished.
Ukrainian authorities said more than 500 Russian drones went up overnight into Thursday. Naftogaz, the state-owned company, reported damage to a gas production facility in the Poltava region and said work there had stopped.
A plant that has been hit before
The refinery belongs to Rosneft and stands about 300 kilometers southeast of Moscow. It handles nearly 5% of Russia’s refinery throughput. Ryazan has come under attack before, and OilPrice.com noted that Russia’s refining system has spent much of 2026 repairing damaged units while trying to keep fuel flowing.
Diesel buyers feel it first
For the diesel market, the end of the truce hurts. Trump had pressed Kyiv to stop hitting Russian refineries because global diesel supplies are tightening, and U.S. diesel still costs more than $6 per gallon. Repeated Ukrainian drone strikes had already cut Russian fuel production and exports.
Thursday’s raid turned a statement into fact on the ground. By the end of the day, one of Russia’s largest refining centers was on fire again.
